Supreme Court Sends Online Gaming Law Challenge to Three-Judge Bench

The Supreme Court has signalled that the challenge to the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act (PROGA) 2025 will now be taken up by a three-judge bench, pushing the hearing to January 2026. The directive came even as petitioners urged the court to accelerate the process, warning that the skill-gaming sector is facing severe disruption despite the law not yet being notified.

A plea for early listing was filed by Head Digital Works, the operator of A23, after the matter unexpectedly disappeared from the docket of the bench that had been hearing related appeals on state-level gaming bans. Counsel argued that this procedural lapse has left the industry vulnerable to financial and operational shocks, stressing that the “constitutional validity of PROGA needs urgent judicial scrutiny.”

The court, however, maintained that cases involving questions of legislative competence must be placed before a larger bench, and confirmed that all PROGA-related matters would be grouped and heard once the new bench is constituted early next year. Even as lawyers highlighted sector-wide paralysis  blocked payment channels, frozen settlements, suspended banking support and communication breakdowns  the bench reiterated that proceedings would resume only in January.

Petitioners have said that soon after PROGA was published in August 2025, banks and intermediaries began withdrawing services, triggering heavy losses, layoffs and investor write-offs linked to regulatory uncertainty.The government has defended the law as essential for regulating an increasingly vast and risk-prone ecosystem, asserting that Parliament holds clear authority to legislate in this domain.

Introduced in 2025, PROGA establishes a national regulatory framework for online money gaming, including rules on registration, compliance and penalties. Although passed after extensive debate, it has not yet been brought into force.With the issue now headed to a three-judge bench, the industry awaits a constitutional verdict that will determine whether the Centre, the states, or both will hold regulatory power over the online gaming sector.