A PIL filed in the Gujarat High Court has sought ban on the popular game,

Pokemon Go, as the app shows images of 'eggs' in the places of worship of
various religions, thus hurting religious sentiments of many worshippers

PTI October 05, 2016 22:12:24 IST

Ahmedabad: Two PILs filed in the Gujarat High Court on Wednesday, have sought ban
on the popular location-based augmented reality game, Pokemon Go for "hurting
religious sentiments" and posing a threat to the "public safety".

Alay Dave, one of the petitioners, told the Gujarat High Court that in the game, images
of 'eggs' are shown in the places of worship of various religions (shown on the map on
mobile phone's screen), which "is seriously hurting religious sentiments of many
worshippers".

Another PIL claimed the mobile game was a threat to "public safety" as the players
have to walk around to capture cartoon characters which appear on the phone's screen,
leading to accidents.

The Gujarat High Court, however, have asked the state government to inform it about
possible actions it can take to prevent illegal downloading of the popular game
as another PIL, which supported the game, argued that the US-based company which
has developed Pokemon Go should be allowed to make it available legally in India as it
did not hurt any religious sentiments.

The division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice VM Pancholi asked
the government pleader how the downloading of the game could be stopped after it was
told that legally the game was still not available in India, and the people were
downloading its pirated copy.

As the government lawyer sought time to file a reply, the court adjourned the hearing to
November 9.