The Supreme Court on 30.07.2025, agreed to tag the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the State of Maharashtra challenging the Bombay High Court’s 2019 ruling in Gurdeep Singh Sachar v. Union of India with the ongoing Gameskraft batch of appeals. The move brings under one umbrella key constitutional and tax questions surrounding the legality of online money gaming ban laws and GST applicability on online fantasy sports and gaming platforms.
Fantasy Sports is Legal? Supreme Court to answer
The request for tagging was made by a standing counsel during the course of the Day 22 hearing in the Gameskraft matter, which is currently examining the validity of retrospective 28% GST on the face value of bets in online gaming, casino, and horse racing industries. The bench, comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan, accepted the request and directed that the Maharashtra SLP be heard along with the Gameskraft appeals. While similar appeals dealing with fantasy sports were earlier dismissed by the Supreme Court, the Maharashtra plea survived.
The Bombay High Court in 2019 had ruled in favour of Dream11, holding that the fantasy sports contests hosted on the platform constituted games of skill and not games of chance. The court had rejected allegations that the company was engaged in gambling or betting, and found that no GST could be levied on the prize pool or player deposits since the amounts represented “actionable claims” and were outside the scope of taxable supply under the CGST Act, 2017.
Crucially, the High Court also held that GST was only applicable on the platform fee (i.e., the commission or service fee charged by Dream11), which was properly taxed at 18 percent. The court found no merit in the contention that Dream11 had evaded tax by misclassifying its offering, and further emphasised that unless the activity was found to be gambling or betting, there was no scope for invoking GST on the entire pooled amount.
The Supreme Court will now examine whether the GST exemption on prize pools or player deposits was correctly granted by the High Court. This issue overlaps with the broader tax controversy, where the government has asserted that 28 percent GST is payable on the entire face value of bets, including for games of skill.
The Gameskraft matter, which resumed final hearings earlier this month after summer vacation has already seen extensive submissions by senior counsels including Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Arvind Datar, Mukul Rohatgi, and others defending the distinction between skill-based and chance-based games. The Union of India is expected to begin its arguments shortly, with the Additional Solicitor General N. Venkataraman slated to address the court this week.
The Supreme Court’s final decision in these consolidated matters is likely to define the regulatory and tax framework for India’s rapidly expanding online money gaming sector.
Source: G2G News
