Pokemon Go hurts religious sentiments: Gujarat High court sends notice to government and Niantic Inc

Though it seems unlikely that a game can hurt Hindu religious sentiments, the PIL cited the reason that showing eggs in places of worship was not acceptable.

Edited By: Srividhya Iyer

Updated: September 7, 2016, 2:09 PM IST

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Gujarat, September 7 : The Gujarat High Court has issued a notice to the state government as well as the central government along with United states based Niantic Inc over a very surprising issue. The notice is over a Public Interest Litigation that claims that the game, Pokemon Go, hurts certain religious sentiments. San Francisco-based developer of the game, Niantic, Inc., and Central and state governments have been made the respondents. Security concerns were the other major reason cited for issuing the notice against the game.

Though it seems unlikely that a game can hurt Hindu religious sentiments, the PIL cited the reason that showing eggs in places of worship was not acceptable. The eggs, according to the plea, seem to appear in places of worship of different religious groups. Pokemon is an augmented reality game and players gather collectables from various spots. The PIL was originally filed against the developers of the game, Niantic Inc.

Originally filed by Alay Anil Dave, the PIL was scheduled to be heard today by a division bench comprising of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice Vipul Pancholi. Since eggs are considered to fall under the category of non-vegetarian food, it is generally considered to be unacceptable for such food to enter temple premises. Since Jainism enforces stricter rules on edibles, it becomes even more important for the Jains to prevent the entry of non-vegetarian food in the premises of their places of worship. (ALSO READ: What exactly is Pokemon Go? And why is the world going gaga over it? Here’s everything you want to know about the new augmented reality game!)

“People playing the game get their points in the form of eggs which generally appear in the places of worship of different religious groups. To find eggs in temples of Hindus and Jains is blasphemous, and therefore my client has sought ban on the game from the country,” petitioner’s lawyer Nachiket Dave said.Other points raised against the game by the petitioner include that it infringes upon the privacy of residents and it poses a threat to the life and limbs to the players, who have to walk around to score a point.

This is not the first time that the globally popular game has faced flak from a country’s institution. In fact, several countries have imposed a blanket ban on the game for a wide variety of reasons. Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt, Australia, Portugal, Bosnia, Turkey are some of the countries that do not allow gamers to play Pokemon Go.