On Friday, the Supreme Court transferred to itself petitions from various High Courts challenging the 28% Goods and Services Tax (GST) on online gaming companies. The bench, including Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, directed the transfer of 27 writ petitions from eleven High Courts to be consolidated with the petition filed by GamesKraft in the Supreme Court. The decision came in response to a transfer petition filed by the Union of India, with the next hearing scheduled for the last week of April 2024.
Several online gaming companies, such as Dream 11, Games 24×7, and Head Digital Works, have also challenged the GST imposition in the Supreme Court. The court had previously stayed the Karnataka High Court’s judgment that had invalidated the GST Intimation Notice amounting to Rs 21,000 crore issued to GamesKraft.
During a brief hearing in January 2024, Senior Advocate Harish Salve, representing the online gaming companies, argued against the imposition of GST on the full face value of the bet or the amount paid into the totalisator, contending that there is no supply of an ‘actionable claim’ to warrant such taxation.
