The Madras high court, a venerable institution that celebrated its sesquicentennial on Saturday, has blazed a trail in India’s judicial history. While having ruled on complex issues, PILs and many causes celebres, it has also had the time to look into all types of grievances of petitioners who view it as an important arbiter of justice.
The high court’s recent ruling, on rummy, a game played with 13 cards, or 21 cards these days, has brought huge relief to thousands who seek a few hours’ relaxation in recreational and social clubs.
The police may have been barking up the wrong tree when it went after Chennai clubs in a series of raids, forcing players to resort to all kinds of subterfuge, including computer programs, to hide the small stakes played for. The high court leaned on a Supreme Court judgment of 1968 that had held rummy to be a game of skill, a finding with which any number of players who have tried to change the course of fortune at card tables by clever manipulation of discards based on mathematical probabilities, or sheer instinct, will agree.
While the government may be justified in banning the running of a lottery that tends to impoverish millions close to or below the poverty line, it had no reason to go after the somewhat innocent game of rummy and equate it with criminal activity in today’s world where so many opportunities to gamble exist. The wisdom of the court has once again prevailed.