AIR 1964 BOMBAY 213 ::66 Bom LR 147 ::ILR (1964) Bom 735

Bombay High Court

Hon'ble Judge(s): Chainani , C.J. AND Mody , J

Prize Competitions Act (42 of 1955) , S.2(d)— Bombay Lotteries and Prize Competitions Control and Tax Act (54 of 1948) , S.2(1)(d)— Applicability of sections - Essential Conditions - Result whether depends in substantial degree on exercise of skill - How to be determined - Quotes competitions in Illustrated Weekly of India - Held, a prize competition within S.2(d). In order to decide whether the Act of 1955 applies to a prize competition, two things are to be considered; (1) whether it involves the exercise of skill, and (2) whether success in it depends to a substantial degree upon the exercise of skill. Mere use of skill is, therefore, not sufficient to take a competition out of the scope of the Act. It must also be shown that success in it depends substantially upon the use of skill. At the same time a competition will not cease to be a competition involving skill, merely because success in it may also be obtained by chance, In cases of Prize Competitions in India the question is not so much whether the competition is a lottery, but whether it is a competition of a gambling character. Lottery is one kind of gambling which is a much wider term. The English doctrine of pure chance or of chance with a scintilla of skill applicable to lotteries cannot, therefore, be the test for determining whether a competition is of gambling character, that i....