Case Title: Karmanya Singh Sareen v. Union of IndiaOn January 17, 2023, the Court posted the matter for further review and noted the Central government's reply.
A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court was informed by the Central government on Thursday that a new measure pertaining to data privacy and protection is currently being drafted.
A panel of Justices KM Joseph, Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy, and CT Ravikumar heard the argument from Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta in the matter involving WhatsApp's privacy policy and its users' right to privacy under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.
"We believe that WhatsApp users should not be treated differently because they are Indian. A legislative procedure that is happening is the writing of bills," the SG said.
He thus asked the court to postpone the hearing.
"If you were keen you would have brought a legislation," said Justice Joseph. To which, the Solicitor General replied saying, "Another bill is under preparation, earlier one was withdrawn."
A resolution to remove the Justice Srikrishna committee's Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 (PDP Bill), was passed by the Lok Sabha in August of this year by voice vote.
This was done in accordance with the Joint Parliamentary Committee's revised recommendations.
On January 17, 2023, the Court posted the matter for further consideration after recording the SG's submission. The petitioners had previously filed a complaint with the Delhi High Court contesting WhatsApp's 2016 privacy policy.
On September 23, 2016, the Delhi High Court granted a partial injunction, declaring that the data of WhatsApp users who cancel their accounts before the 2016 privacy policy took effect cannot be utilized for any of the objectives specified in the 2016 privacy policy.
The aforementioned judgement was subsequently appealed before the Supreme Court since the High Court only provided limited redress. The issue was submitted to a Constitution Bench by the Supreme Court in April 2017.
When the Constitution Bench later took up the matter, it was postponed when the Court learned that a committee led by Justice BN Srikrishna was drafting a Data Protection Bill.
On January 4, 2021, WhatsApp revised its user agreement.