Supreme Court To Hear State Of Meghalaya's Suit Claiming Legal Right To Sell Its Lottery Tickets In Other States

The Supreme Court is set to hear the State of Meghalaya claiming ‘legal right’ to sell its lottery tickets in other states. The Court on Friday(18 Aug) ordered that all the states who have not filed their counter yet must do so within 1 month.

The Court observed that "In view of earlier order, this matter will have to be heard. Every state will have to file a counter within a month. No further extensions would be given.”

The Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Abhay S. Oka and Justice Pankaj Mithal was hearing a plea by the State of Meghalaya which assails Sections 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of the Lotteries (Regulation) Act, 1998 by invoking the original jurisdiction of this Court under Article 131 of the Constitution of India.

The matter is listed on 3rd October for hearing.

Earlier, a 2 judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Sanjay Kumar had held that Meghalaya's suit was maintainable under Article 131 of the Constitution.

It had observed that the “State of Meghalaya seeks to assert its right to do business in lotteries under Article 298(b) and its executive power to do so would be subject to parliamentary legislation, viz., the Act of 1998, the grievances raised by it in that context would constitute disputes which fall squarely within the four corners of Article 131 of the Constitution.”

The court had referred to BR Enterprises v. State of UP(1999) it was held that while the sale of lottery tickets by a state might not be deemed a 'trade' under Article 301 of the Indian Constitution, it unquestionably qualifies as a 'business' within the ambit of Article 298(b).

It added “this Court affirmed that ‘lottery’ was a form of gambling and merely because a lottery is run by the State itself, it would not change its character as res extra commercium. However, it was observed that sale of lottery tickets by a State, though not a ‘trade’ under Article 301 of the Constitution, would still be a ‘business’ within the meaning of Article 298(b) of the Constitution.”

Case title: The State Of Meghalaya v. Union Of India And Ors.

Case Number: Original. Suit No. 1/2021