Announce that users who don't accept privacy policy won't be restricted till data protection law is debated: Supreme Court to WhatsApp

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked WhatsApp to publicise its stand taken in a letter addressed to the Central government that users who do not accept its 2016 privacy policy will not be restrained till the Data Protection Bill, 2022 is deliberated in Parliament [Karmanya Singh Sareen v. Union of India]..A Constitution Bench of Justices KM Joseph, Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy, and CT Ravikumar agreed to defer hearing the challenge to the WhatsApp privacy policy in light of the fact that the Bill is likely to be placed before Parliament during the upcoming Budget Session."It is their (respondents) contention that the Bill will deal with the aspects that are subject matter of petitions before this court as it is prayed that the case may not be taken up," the Bench recorded while adjourning the case to April 10. .However, to protect the interests of WhatsApp users in the interim, the Bench asked the messaging app to publicise the stand it took in a May 2021 letter to the Central government that no users will be removed from the platform for not accepting the privacy policy. "We further direct WhatsApp to cause publicity to this aspect for the benefit of customers of WhatsApp by giving an advertisement in five newspapers on two occasions. Ads shall be full page. The ad will necessarily incorporate the stand taken in the letter," the Court ordered. .The order was passed despite being contested by the petitioners, who argued that when the case was originally taken up in 2017, the very same ground was pointed out for an adjournment. "Way back in 2017, an assurance was extended to the Constitution Bench that the Act will be passed by Diwali as per news reports. Be that as it may, this issue is entirely in the realm of speculation."Briefly discussing the merits of the case, Senior Advocate Shyam Divan pointed out that the stand taken by WhatsApp with regard to customers in the European Union was in stark contrast with that for India, without any warrant. .However, considering that the Bill was soon to be introduced and that arguments would take a significant amount of time, the Court agreed to defer the hearing. .The petitioners in this case claim that the manner in which the new privacy policy of WhatsApp was framed and the terms of the new policy result in a grave affront to the fundamental right of privacy of crores of Indian citizens using WhatsApp on a daily basis..[Read our live-coverage of today's hearing below]