After the Center said a new bill on data privacy is “already ready”, the Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned till January 2023 hearing on a petition challenging WhatsApp’s privacy policy for users in India.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, told a five-member constitution bench headed by Justice K M Joseph that “the government is alive to the situation” and “the preparation of the bill is already underway”. He said the case “requires a legislative response rather than a judicial response” and urged the court to adjourn the hearing.
He told the bench, also comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and C T Ravikumar, that the government’s stand is that “Indian citizens cannot be discriminated against as other users of WhatsApp… operating in India, you must comply with Indian laws”, and that Indian users should be “provided the same level of privacy as you are treating others”.
Pointing out that the matter was pending for a long time and if the government wanted to bring some legislation, it could do so, Justice Joseph asked: “Why wait?”
Mehta replied that a Bill was introduced but later withdrawn. “New is being formed,” he said, adding that he could not get the exact status as the matter was suddenly listed for hearing on Thursday.
Senior advocate Shayan Dewan, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that the company’s privacy policy has changed after Meta took over WhatsApp. The degree of security and privacy enjoyed by European users is high, he said, adding that privacy being a universal human right, Indian users should not be at a disadvantage compared to users abroad until the bill takes shape.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for WhatsApp, said the EU policy was to meet EU laws, and ultimately it would depend on the law in force in each country.
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