A overview bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, lately upheld the fantasy sports activities format supplied by Dream11 as a recreation of ability. The bench summarily dismissed a overview petition filed by Varun Gumber who sought the reopening and overview of the dismissal order of the Supreme Court that pertains to the 2017 Punjab & Haryana High Court judgment ruling fantasy sports activities to be a recreation of ability.

In whole seven petitions have been dismissed by the Supreme Court. Three of those petitions pertained to the difficulty of applicability of GST premised on deciding whether or not fantasy sports activities quantities to betting and playing. In one order, the Supreme Court dominated that legality of fantasy sports activities as a authentic enterprise and recreation of ability can’t be questioned and solely the difficulty of applicability of GST may be thought-about by courts.

Further, in July 2021, a bench comprising Justice Nariman and Justice Gavai, whereas dismissing the petition on legality, held that the difficulty of fantasy sports activities being a recreation of ability and never playing/betting is not res integra i.e. the query of legislation has been examined conclusively.  This was adopted by an order in September 2022 by Justice Gavai and Justice CT Ravi Kumar, which relied on the 2021 order to dismiss one other SLP on the matter. 

The overview petition by Varun Gumber claimed that there was an error obvious within the judgment of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana. Upon cautious overview, the petition was dismissed on deserves in addition to on account of delay with the bench noting that there isn’t a error obvious on the face of the judgments. Accordingly, the order reads that the matter doesn’t warrant any reconsideration.

Commenting on the event, Senior Advocate Gopal Jain stated, “It is important to note that the Supreme Court of India has dismissed this review petition on merits and categorically observed that there was no error apparent in the judgment of the Hon’ble High Court of Punjab and Haryana. A total of 9 Supreme Court judges have now evaluated the legality of the fantasy sports format offered by Dream11 in the country and have consistently held that it is a game of skill and a legitimate business activity protected under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution. It is also to be noted that the issue pertaining to treating fantasy sports as not amounting to betting in the context of levy of tax is also settled and the only open question before the court is on the applicability of GST to Fantasy Sports as a legitimate business activity. Hence any attempt to treat Fantasy Sports as ‘betting’ in the eyes of law is no longer in debate since it has been adjudicated both on facts and law and has attained finality.”

Joy Bhattacharjya, Director General, FIFS added “We are pleased that the Supreme Court has once again reaffirmed that formats of fantasy sports that are in line with the FIFS charter are games of skill and not akin to betting or gambling. We continue to repose our faith in the judiciary and will keep working towards promoting responsible gaming in the country.”