In one of its recent orders, the High Court of Punjab and Haryana has directed the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) to look into a representation made to advocate immediate ban of the online multiplayer battle royal game, PUBG (Player Unknown’s BattleGrounds).

According to the MEITY letter, this representation is presently "under examination" by the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY).

Owners of PUBG is Chinese based 'Tenecent Games'.

CASE DETAILS

The High Court had been approached with the petition by Advocate HC Arora last month after his representation submitted to MEITY went unanswered.

On Dec 09, last year, during the hearing, the Bench comprising of Chief Justice Rajiv Shanker Jha and Justice Rajiv Sharma disposed of the plea with a direction that the Central Government take a decision on the petitioner's representation expeditiously.

The Bench remarked,

"It is made clear that we are not expressing any opinion on the merits of the case and the authority will be at liberty to take all the facts and facets into consideration and thereafter accept or reject the representation of the petitioner in accordance with the law. The decision so taken shall be conveyed to the petitioner."

The petitioner, HC Arora, submitted before the Court that he raised concerns before the MEITY that a large number of school-going children are addicted to the game, which leads them to neglect their academic activities.

He contended that the children are virtually addicted to this game and remain glued to their mobile phones for the purpose of watching this game even for 4 or 5 hours every day. 
Arora further added that the PUBG causes various mental and physical health problems in children. He submitted that owing to the long hours spent playing the game, the sleep patterns of children are disrupted. It was stated in the plea that the long hours spent staring at the screening device also takes a toll on their eyes and leads to headaches.

Further, it was submitted that PUBG normalizes violence which sends a wrong message among the children. He even added that the addiction to the game is similar to drug addiction. 

The petition in this regard read:

"The entire game teaches the children as to how to catch hold of the targeted person and to kill him. It is virtually an attempt to convert the children into future criminals and murderers. Just like an addiction to drugs, which has destroyed the youth of our country, particularly in the States like Punjab, this PUBG game also has the potential to destroy the coming generation, i.e. our school-going children, who are losing interest in studies and have become addicted to PUBG game."

The petitioner also drew parallels between PUBG and the “Blue Whale” game, which claimed the lives of many players earlier, owing which it was subsequently banned.

The petitioner submitted arguements on the same tone:

"There is no reason why India should not follow suit for the purpose of saving our future generation, i.e., our children. Similar concrete action is required to be taken for banning PUBG game also ".

The order has been passed by Chief Justice Rajiv Shanker Jha and Justice Rajiv Sharma on 30-01-2020:

Read Order Here:

 

 

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