Gujarat High Court: A Bench of Anant S. Dave, Acting CJ and Biren Vaishnav, J. disposed of a public interest litigation that challenged the ban on the viral online game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (“PUBG”), without passing any further orders as the notification extending the said ban was cancelled by the Police Commissioner, Rajkot City.
Pruthvirajsinh Zala — a first-year Law student of the Institute of Law, Nirma University — had filed a PIL challenging the constitutional validity of the notification which imposed a ban on PUBG in Rajkot City. The Rajkot Police commissioner had laid a 2 months ban on PUBG sinceMarch using powers under Section 144 CrPC and Section 37(3) of Gujarat Police Act. Later, the Police even arrested several people playing PUBG and booked them under Section 188 IPC (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant).
The petitioner who appeared in person before the Court, challenged that notification on the grounds that it was arbitrary and unreasonable at the very face of it, and violative of Articles 14, 19(1)(a), 19(1)(g), and 21. The Government Pleader submitted that the ban was merely for the school examination purposes and even the parents were happy about it. Per contra, the petitioner argued that such justification did not fall under the ambit of reasonable restrictions and it was based on mere anecdotal views lacking scientific nexus.
On 29-04-2019, the High Court had directed the State to file an affidavit in reply with regard to the contentions raised by the petitioner. On 08-05-2019, the State sought more time to file the affidavit. the petitioner informed the Court that the band had been extended for another 2 months vide notification dated 01-05-2019, even though the school examinations were over and summer vacations had begun. The Court granted one day’s time to State to file the affidavit. On 09-05-2019, the Court was informed that the Police Commissioner, Rajkot City had denotified the ban extended on PUBG.
In such view of the matter, the Court disposed of the petition observing that no further orders were required to be made.[Pruthvirajsinh Zala v. State of Gujarat, R/WP (PIL) No. 78 of 2019, decided on 09-05-2019]
In the communiqué received from Mr Pruthvirajsinh Zala, he quotes Martin Luther King, Jr. saying — “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.” He says he strongly believes in constitutional values and human rights; and that he acted to protect the fundamental rights and prevent arrests of the citizens of Rajkot for merely playing a game.
