Will not go ahead with payment service without complying with norms: Whatsapp

NEW DELHI: Whatsapp Inc told the Supreme Court Wednesday that it will not go ahead with the payment service scheme without complying with all the regulations that are in force in India.

Whatsapp Inc said this before a bench, headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde, which was hearing through video-conferencing a plea seeking directions to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the RBI to ban the Us-based firm’s operations in the unified payment interface (UPI) ecosystem on its current model.

“Kapil Sibal, senior counsel appearing for Respondent No.3 - Whatsapp Inc, makes a statement on behalf of his client that they will not go ahead with the payments’ scheme without complying with all the regulations in force,” the bench, also comprising Justices Indu Malhotra and Hrishikesh Roy, noted in its order.

The apex court issued notices to the Centre, Whatsapp Inc and others asking them to file their responses on the plea.

“Issue notice returnable after three weeks,” the bench said.

The plea, filed by Delhibased think tank Good Governance Chambers, said that in February 2018 NPCI had accorded permission to Whatsapp Inc to provide its payment services under the UPI ecosystem.

The plea has alleged that Whatsapp Inc, for the purpose of providing payment service, has not launched a ‘dedicated app’ for UPI enabled transactions but has embedded its ‘messaging app’ with UPI enabled feature.

“Therefore the Respondent no. 3 (Whatsapp Inc) operates on a model wherein a social app has been bundled with the UPI enabled payment feature,” the plea claimed, adding that this poses huge risk to the financial data of users.