SC SEEKS CENTRE’S REPLY ON WHATSAPP VIOLATING RULES

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine a plea alleging that WhatsApp did not comply with Indian laws, including the provision for appointing a grievance officer. The Bench of judges

R F Nariman and Indu Malhotra issued notice on the Centre and WhatsApp on a plea filed by the Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change.

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine a plea alleging that WhatsApp does not comply with the Indian laws including the provision for appointing a grievance officer.

Seeking the response of the Centre and the instant messaging platform on the plea, a bench of Justices R F Nariman and Indu Malhotra issued notice to the Centre and to WhatsApp on a plea filed by an NGO, Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change (CASC), which also sought to restrain the platform from proceeding with its payment service unless it fully complied with the provisions of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The court asked the parties to file their responses within four weeks.

WhatsApp reportedly has over 200 million users in India, and almost one million people are “testing” its payments service. In its plea, the CASC said that to open a bank account, a customer needs to comply with KYC norms laid down by the RBI and various other formalities.

“WhatsApp is a foreign company with no office or servers in India. To run payments service in India, WhatsApp is obligated to have its office and payments in India. Moreover, it is also required to have a grievance officer for users in India.

Yet, it is being allowed to continue with its payments and other services, without any check,” the plea claimed.