ORDER :

Sanjib Banerjee, J.

(Prayer in W.P.No.18022 of 2020: Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking issuance of a writ of certiorari or any other appropriate writ or order or directions to call for the records of Act 1 of 2021, Tamil Nadu Gaming and Police Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021 dated February 25, 2021 published in government Gazette No.123 and quash the same. (Prayer amended vide order dated 19.3.2021 made in WMP.No.7966/2021 in WP.18022/2020)

1. The petitioners complain of an over-paternalistic stance taken by the State in bringing about sweeping amendments to an existing law that, according to the petitioners, infringe their fundamental rights and are otherwise unreasonable to the point of being manifestly arbitrary.

2. The challenge here is to Part II of the Tamil Nadu Gaming and Police Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021 (Act 1 of 2021), by which the Tamil Nadu Gaming Act, 1930 was amended (hereinafter referred to as the Amending Act). Substantially the same amendments to the Act of 1930 had been previously incorporated in an Ordinance promulgated on November 21, 2020. Act 1 of 2021 came into effect upon it being gazetted on February 25, 2021. The matter also b