India’s Supreme Court on Thursday indicated that the constitutional challenge to the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act (PROGA), 2025, will be referred to a three-judge Bench and heard only on January 21st, 2026, delaying industry hopes for urgent relief.

According to local media outlet Storyboard 18, the court said the matter involves questions on Parliament’s legislative competence, warranting consideration by a larger Bench.

A Bench led by Chief Justice Suryakant, sitting with Justice Joymalya Bagchi, heard an early-listing plea from Head Digital Works (HDW), operator of A23. The company warned that the sector is undergoing a severe shutdown, even though PROGA has not yet been formally notified. Senior advocates Aryama Sundaram and Arvind Datar told the court that the case had unexpectedly disappeared from the docket of the Bench previously hearing related state-level gaming appeals. They stressed that the petition challenges the constitutionality of the central law itself.

The Chief Justice noted that cases concerning the “vires of a statute” are generally placed before a three-judge Bench. He said the entire batch of PROGA-related matters — including HDW’s plea — would “likely” be listed in January once the Bench is constituted. When counsel pressed for an earlier hearing due to the industry’s collapse, the Chief Justice responded: “Everything is shut down… We are listing in January. That is what I am promising.”

The dispute is closely connected to the already-argued Gameskraft batch, in which a separate Bench has reserved judgment on whether states have the constitutional authority to regulate or prohibit online gaming. The PROGA challenges raise the corresponding question of whether Parliament can enact a nationwide ban. Petitioners argued that the two issues are intertwined and that a finding on one will inevitably affect the other.

HDW submitted that, since PROGA’s publication on August 22, banks, payment gateways and intermediaries have withdrawn services, effectively paralysing operations. The company said it has had no revenue for nearly three months while continuing to bear monthly operating expenses of more than Rs100 million ($1.2 million). Its workforce has shrunk from 606 to 178, and foreign investor Clairvest has written off its Rs7.6-billion ($91 million) investment. The industry employs an estimated 200,000 people nationwide.

The Union government, in its affidavit, defended PROGA as a necessary regulatory measure to address risks posed by unregulated online money-gaming, including concerns over financial integrity, opaque algorithms, and vulnerable users. It maintained that Parliament has full legislative authority over the sector.

With the Supreme Court signalling a January hearing before a larger Bench, the future of India’s roughly Rs230-billion ($2.75 billion) online skill-gaming industry will hinge on a constitutional ruling early next year. Until then, the sector remains in a state of uncertainty.