The High Court has allowed Garena, a Singaporean online game developer and the maker of Free Fire game, to join the legal fight in favour of the Free Fire game, which was termed as a harmful online game for children and adolescents.
The bench of Justice Mamnoon Rahman and Justice Khandaker Diliruzzaman on Wednesday (February 2) accepted the petition of Garena to join a writ petition as a party.
As a result of this order, there was no obstacle for Garena of Singapore to continue the legal battle for the game in the court of Bangladesh.
Barrister Junaid Ahmed Chowdhury and Barrister Tanvir Quader appeared for Garena Online Pvt. Ltd in the court, while Assistant Attorney General Selim Azad represented the state.
Earlier on October 26 last year, another bench of the High Court had rejected the application of Garena in this regard.
On August 31, the maker of Free Fire game applied to join the legal fight as a party of a writ petition which was filed for stopping ‘harmful and addictive’ online games like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) and Garena Free Fire (Free Fire) in Bangladesh.
According to the application, there are many players of Free Fire game in Bangladesh. Garena Online Pvt Ltd has suffered a direct commercial loss due to a court order blocking links to the game and such other online games. So, Garena Online Pvt. Ltd. wants to be a party in the writ petition.
Earlier on August 16 in 2021, the High Court ordered a three-month ban on the ‘harmful and addictive’ online games in Bangladesh. The HC bench of Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Md Kamrul Hossain Mollah had also issued a rule, asking why video sharing and streaming apps such as TikTok, Bigo Live, and Likee should not be banned.
Secretaries of posts and telecommunications, education, home, law and health ministries, the inspector general of police, Bangladesh Bank governor, chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, and mobile network operators were asked to reply to the rule.
On June 24 in 2021, Barrister Mohammad Humayun Kabir Pallab and Barrister Mohammad Kausar filed the writ petition with the High Court seeking directives to take down the games, and video sharing and streaming apps.
Earlier on June 19, the two petitioners sent a legal notice to the defendants highlighting the negative impact of these games and online video streaming apps on children, teenagers, and others of the younger generation.