Supreme Court issues notice on plea to ban Opinion Trading Apps, to hear matter on 21st March

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The Supreme Court on 21^st February, 2025 issued notices to the central government, Gujarat government, Probo Media Technologies Private Limited (Probo) and Galactus Funware Technology Private Limited (MPL Opinio) on a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by social activist Sumit Kapurbhai Prajapati challenging a Gujarat High Court order rejecting his plea seeking a ban on opinion trading platforms.

The Gujarat High Court in its order dated 3^rd January, 2025 while dismissing Prajapati’s plea had asked the activist to approach the Bombay High Court by filing an intervener application since the Bombay High Court is already hearing a similar plea and the issue of whether opinion trading apps amount to being betting and games of chance has pan-India implications.

Prajapati’s counsel during the hearing claimed that the gaming statutes of Gujarat and Maharashtra are different and that the issue of whether opinion trading apps are games of chance and amount to betting deserves to be heard. After considering the matter, a bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan issued notice to all respondents and posted the matter for further hearing on 21^st March, 2025.

It may be noted that opinion trading apps which allow users to predict prices of cryptocurrency, temperature in a particular city, outcomes of elections and political events, cricket matches etc. do not have any judicial precedent affirming its status as a game of skill.

The Mumbai police had filed a FIR against opinion trading app Probo in July 2022 under the Maharashtra Prevention of Gambling Act and Information Technology Act for allegedly allowing users to bet on the number of YouTube views that a particular movie trailer would garner and many other such uncertain events.

Probo founders Sachin Subhash Gupta and Ashish Sushil Garg were thereafter arrested by the Mumbai police and subsequently released on a bail bond of Rs. 5,000/- each. The FIR culminated into a chargesheet against Gupta and Garg in June 2023, but the Bombay High Court has currently granted interim relief to the Probo founders and stopped further proceedings in the trial court until it considers their quashing application.

Given the uncertainty about the legality of such prediction apps and severe backlash and criticism faced by such platforms, Supreme Court’s decision on the matter will be crucial and may provide more clarity on the legality of such apps.

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