Game of skill excludes gambling under GST; nomen juris applied to classify Rummy as skill based for tax purposes.
The classification of Rummy under GST depends on whether skill predominates over chance; applying the principle of nomen juris, judicially established meanings of "gambling," "game of chance," and "game of skill" must be used. Rummy requires memorisation and strategic holding and discarding of cards and has been regarded as a game of skill. Consequently, the terms betting and gambling in the GST context should not be read to include games of skill, and selective reliance on stray judicial language to levy tax on such games is impermissible.