SC Refers WhatsApp Privacy Policy Case To Constitution Bench [Read Petition]

The  Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar's on Wednesday said a Constitution Bench will be constituted for hearing of protection of Privacy issue in WhatsApp.

Referring the plea against the Delhi High Court's August last year order to a Constitution Bench, CJI fixed April 18 for hearing.

Facebook and the social site's counsel senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Sidharth Luthra submitted that this bench should hear the main issue first and then refer it to a larger bench.

CJI said whatever you want to say raise before the Constitution Bench

The PIL was filed by petitioners Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi challenging the 2016 privacy policy of popular mobile application WhatsApp.

It was alleged that Whats App illegally shares the data with social network site Facebook.

The petitioners have challenged the Delhi High Court’s September 2016 order in which the court had directed WhatsApp to delete the data upto September 25 last year.

According to petition,  155 million users are affected with the privacy policy of WhatsApp which has started illegally sharing its data with facebook.

“There is clear violation of Article 19 (right to freedom of speech and expression) and also Article 21 (right to life or personal liberty) of the Constitution. The government is duty bound to protect the right to privacy of the people,”  the petition said.

 The State authorities in other countries / jurisdictions – have already acted proactively and ensured the protection of the personal and private data and information of millions of citizens by issuing directions for preventing the implementation of the modified privacy policy of WhatsApp.

On September 23, 2016 while disposing the petition, high court had partially allowed the plea.