Today, 18th July, The Supreme Court ordered transfer of all four PILs seeking a ban on opinion trading platforms from Bombay, Gujarat, and Chhattisgarh High Courts, stating, “All four PILs must be heard here” for uniform adjudication.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court took over four Public Interest Litigations (PILs) from various high courts that sought a ban on opinion trading platforms, which are accused of facilitating illegal betting and gambling activities.
A bench consisting of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan issued this ruling in response to a transfer petition from Probo Media Technologies Pvt Ltd, the operator of one such platform.
The bench acknowledged the status of the pending petitions across different high courts.
Senior advocate Abhishek M Singhvi, representing the petitioner, noted that two PILs were pending before the Bombay High Court, while another was before the Gujarat High Court and the fourth before the Chhattisgarh High Court.
Singhvi proposed that the petitions from the other high courts be transferred to the Bombay High Court.
However, the bench rejected this suggestion, stating,
“All these four PILs should be heard by this court…we direct the High Court of Bombay, High Court of Gujarat, and High Court of Chhattisgarh to transfer all the writ petitions with the entire record to this court at the earliest. Once these four PILs are transferred to this court, the Registry shall notify before this court as directed by the Chief Justice of India.”
Senior advocate Gaurav Aggarwal, representing social activist Sumit Kapurbhai Prajapati, the original petitioner in one of the PILs, argued that the issues presented in the petitions were not identical, particularly the one from Chhattisgarh, which challenges the legislative framework surrounding gambling.
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He asserted that the mere presence of a common petitioner should not justify consolidating all cases.
The Supreme Court had previously issued a notice on May 22 regarding the transfer petition from the firm.
The bench stated,
“As we have issued notice and would like to hear the original petitioners…the PILs pending in the Gujarat High Court and the High Court of Chhattisgarh, respectively, for the time being may not be heard.”
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Opinion trading platforms function similarly to online marketplaces, allowing users to trade predictions about real-world events. Participants wager on whether specific outcomes will occur, typically framed as “yes” or “no” questions.
By betting on their chosen outcome, users can earn a payout if their prediction is accurate; otherwise, they forfeit their stake.