WhatsAppon Friday accepted that "the government is the administrator" in itscase and informed the Delhi High Court that it will put its privacy policyupdate "on hold" until the Data Protection Bill came into force.
Thisis a significant development after the new Information Technology MinisterAshwini Vaishnaw made it crystal clear within minutes of taking charge that"law of the land is supreme" and no one can afford to disrespect it.
WhatsApp'scounsel also accepted that its commitment is "we need to fit in thelaw".
Senioradvocate Harish Salve, representing WhatsApp, submitted before a benchcomprising Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh, "We will notenforce it until the Data Protection Bill will come out. In our case thegovernment is the administrator of the rules...we said okay, we will wait tillthe Bill."
Salvealso informed that the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology(MEITY) has communicated to WhatsApp that it feels that its privacy policy isagainst the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices andProcedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information), Rules 2011.
Headded that his client replied to the ministry's notice that WhatsApp will notlimit functionality for some time and continue to show users the updatedversion. "We will maintain this approach until the Data Protection Billcomes into force. We have voluntarily agreed to put the update on hold tillthen," submitted Salve.
Hefurther added that if the Bill is enforced at a later stage, WhatsApp willconform to the parliamentary law. "If Parliament allows me to do it, I'lldo it. Otherwise, I won't do it... The commitment is that I'll not do anythingif the parliamentary law comes...we need to fit in the law," he said.
Senioradvocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing Facebook, raised question on thejurisdiction of the Competition Commission of India to initiate inquiry whileexercising suo moto powers. He added that the top court is already examiningthe 2016 policy, and there are three matters pending in the High Court.
InJune, the Delhi High Court refused to stay a notice issued by the CompetitionCommission of India (CCI), asking WhatsApp to furnish certain information inconnection with the probe, ordered in March, on the instant messaging app's newupdated privacy policy.
Avacation bench of Justices Anup J. Bhambhani and Jasmeet Singh had said,"We do not consider it appropriate to stay the operation of impugnednotice dated June 4, 2021 at this stage."
Thebench noted that Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi has "fairly"stated June 4, notice, CCI seeking more information about the privacy policy,was perfectly in line with the procedure contemplated under the statute fortaking forward an on-going investigation.
Thebench had said: "The notice has not been stayed by the division bench, andit would take substantial time for preparation of a report pursuant to thereceipt of the information called-for by way of the impugned notice, whichreport would thereafter be forwarded to the Competition Commission of India(CCI)."
InMay, the court had issued notice in the appeals filed by WhatsApp and Facebookchallenging a single judge order refusing to set aside the CCI probe into themessaging platform's privacy policy.