Matters of liberty more important than lottery: Supreme Court on Meghalaya's suit against lottery ban

Cases relating to human liberty have to be prioritised over cases concerning lotteries, the Supreme Court said on Monday while rejecting a request by the Meghalaya government challenging the ban imposed on its lottery by various States [State of Meghalaya vs Union of India and Ors]..A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan initially said that it will list the matter in September for hearing on interim relief. Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the State of Meghalaya, then asked for a shorter date for final disposal of the matter."It is a question of my revenue. Only Constitutional issue is whether such bills (banning lotteries) are legal. No evidence needs to be recorded", he stated.Justice Oka then remarked, "We have matters of human liberty that are more important than lottery!"After Rohatgi persisted, the Court listed the case for directions after two weeks and asked the respondents to file statements regarding whether they need to submit/record any evidence in the case..The top court had in May last year ruled that the suit is maintainable and cannot be dismissed at the threshold."In light of earlier judgments of this Court...it would be open to this Court to read down or interpret the statutory provisions so as to effectively deal with the grievance of the States of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim with the provisions of the Act of 1998, which allegedly infringe their right to do business under Article 298(b)", it had observed..The matter concerns an original suit filed by the State of Meghalaya before the apex court, raising grievance against Section 5 of the Lotteries (Regulation) Act that authorises States to prohibit the sale of lottery tickets organised, conducted or promoted by other States. Specifically, the Meghalaya government has sought a declaration that Sections 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of the Lotteries (Regulation) Act and Rule 5 of the Lotteries (Regulation) Rules, 2010 are ultra vires and unconstitutional.It has also sought injunction against States prohibiting the sale of Meghalaya-based lottery tickets. The Meghalaya government's plea highlighted that regulation of lotteries organised by other States fall within the domain of the Central government and States should not be allowed to ban the same. During earlier hearings, the top court had asked whether a State banning goods from another State was permissible in a federal structure.The counsel for the Central government had then argued that as per precedent, lotteries are a form of gambling and could be prohibited by State legislatures as a matter of policy.