In February, a public interest lawsuit was filed in Telangana High Court, requesting that the mobile game software Battlegrounds Mobile India be banned (BGMI).
Advocate Anil Stevenson Jangam filed a PIL calling for the banning of the hugely popular battle royale game, stating that the game was essentially exactly PUBG Mobile rebranded as 'BGMI.'
The PIL claimed that the previously banned 'PUBG Mobile' and 'BGMI' are fundamentally the same applications, and that Tencent and publisher Krafton used front businesses to conceal the app's Chinese origins and deceive Indian authorities.
For those who are unaware, the game PUBG was banned in India due to Chinese ties, notably its publisher Tencent, which is one of the world's largest game businesses.
After the prohibition, the game was re-released in India under the name Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) with a few adjustments by the South Korean publisher Krafton.
In response to the PIL, MeitY N. Samaya Balan of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology wrote to the Telangana High Court, assuring the public that the two apps 'PUBG Mobile' and 'BGMI' are not the same. Balan's declaration verified that the two apps, 'PUBG Mobile' and 'BGMI,' are not the same. Only the government has the capacity and power to block computer access, according to the affidavit.
The response by Meity towards the PIL on BGMI suggests that the game will not be banned any time in the future.
