New Delhi, Nov 14 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a public interest petition (PIL) seeking directions to the Central government to ban the operations of insta\\\\nt messa\\\\ging service WhatsApp for its refusal to comply with the new Information Technology Rules (IT Rules)
A bench comprising Justice MM Sundresh and Justice Aravind Kumar gave the verdict after hearing a writ petition seeking a ban |WhatsApp’s operation for not conforming to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethic Code) Rules, 2021.
The petition was dismissed earlier by the Kerala High Court on June 28, 2021, stating that the plea was premature.
Petitioner Omanakuttan KG said that the High Court’s finding is that it is too premature to file the plea.
Omanakuttan KG had earlier moved the Kerala High Court seeking directions to the Central government to ban WhatsApp if it does not comply with the orders issued by government authorities.
Omanakuttan filed the plea after WhatsApp moved the Delhi Court challenging the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021(IT rules).
The petitioner submitted before the High Court that WhatsApp had claimed |that it wa\\\\s not amenable to IT Rules, 2021 because the end-to-end encryption of the app prevents it from tracing the origins of messages.
However, WhatsApp’s privacy policy itself says that it will store messages sent by users in certain circumstances and it also has access to their contacts and other information.
Further, the app lacks security, is anti-national and filled with anti-social elements who spread fake news and images.
It was highlighted that the reliance placed on messaging services such as WhatsApp for serving court summons and legal notices is also at stake as the authenticity of such messages cannot be guaranteed.
The Court did not find any merit in the plea and dismissed it.
