Today, On 14th November, The Supreme Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking a ban on WhatsApp. The petition had requested the Court to instruct the Central government to enforce compliance with the new IT Rules and ban the app if it failed to adhere. The Court rejected the plea, upholding WhatsApp’s continued operations. The petition argued that the app’s non-compliance posed security risks.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition that sought a directive to the Central government to ban WhatsApp for allegedly failing to comply with the new Information Technology (IT) Rules.
A Bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Aravind Kumar issued the ruling after hearing the case.
The PIL filed by Omanakuttan KG, who previously approached the Kerala High Court with a similar request. The petitioner argued that the Central government should take action against WhatsApp if the app did not adhere to the 2021 IT Rules.
This move followed WhatsApp’s challenge in the Delhi High Court against the provisions of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which sought to increase accountability of online platforms.
In June 2021, the Kerala High Court dismissed Omanakuttan’s petition, deeming it “premature” as WhatsApp had not yet been required to fully comply with the IT Rules. This led to the current PIL in the Supreme Court, where the petitioner reiterated concerns about WhatsApp’s non-compliance.
The petitioner argued that WhatsApp’s claim of being exempt from the IT Rules due to its end-to-end encryption, which prevents it from tracing the origin of messages, was problematic. While WhatsApp maintains this position, the petitioner highlighted that the app’s privacy policy states that it does store certain messages under specific circumstances and has access to users’ contacts and other personal information.
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Additionally, the petition raised security concerns, describing WhatsApp as “anti-national” and a platform vulnerable to misuse by anti-social elements, particularly for spreading fake news and misinformation.
The petitioner also emphasized the risks posed by WhatsApp’s use in serving legal notices and court summons, arguing that the app’s inability to guarantee the authenticity of messages undermines its reliability for such purposes. Despite these arguments, the Supreme Court chose to dismiss the plea.