Supreme Court notice to Centre, WhatsApp against payments service
New Delhi, Aug 27 : The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre and messaging service provider WhatsApp after a plea sought direction to restrain the app from proceeding with its payments systems unless it fully complies with RBI's provisions.
A bench of Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice Indu Malhotra sought response from WhatsApp, Law and Justice Ministry, Finance Ministry and Information Technology Ministry within four weeks.
Advocate Virag Gupta, appearing for the petitioner Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change, contended that the messaging platform does not comply with provision of mandating a Grievance Officer and other laws of India including Know Your Customer (KYC) norms laid down by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The plea said that while companies like Facebook and Google have appointed Grievance Officers for users in India, WhatsApp had not.
In order to make WhatsApp accountable, it must be directed to comply with Indian laws and appoint a Grievance Officer who shall address grievances of the consumers as well as co-ordinate with investigating agencies, it added.
WhatsApp is a foreign company with no office or servers in India and to run payments service here it is obligated to have its office and payments in India, said the plea.
The advocate said WhatsApp was being allowed to continue with its payments and other services without any checks.
WhatsApp has over 200 million users in India and almost one million people are "testing" WhatsApp's payments service in India, which is the largest base for the Facebook-owned company that has over 1.5 billion users globally, according to the petition.
Every user has a number on WhatsApp but the messaging platform does not have a number through which the users can contact the company for grievance redressal, it added.
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Speaker Om Birla to inaugurate CPA India Region meet in Panaji on Thursday
New Delhi (PTI): Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will inaugurate a two-day conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) India Region in Panaji on Thursday.
The conference of Zone-7 of the CPA aims to strengthen parliamentary cooperation, promote exchange of best practices and deliberate on key development priorities of the region, according to an official statement.
The dignitaries will deliberate on subjects such as "The Role of Young Legislators in Achieving the Goal of a Developed India by 2047" and "Priorities of Zone-7 in Trade, Tourism, Urbanisation, Environment and Coastal Connectivity", among others.
The CPA India Region Zone-7 comprises the legislatures of Goa, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
This will be the first conference of Zone-7 after the CPA India Region was restructured into nine zones in 2024.
Currently, the speaker of the Gujarat legislative assembly serves as the chairperson of CPA India Region Zone-7.
The valedictory session on April 10 will be graced by Goa Governor Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju, along with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh, Maharashtra Legislative Council Chairman Ram Shinde, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar, and Gujarat Assembly Speaker Shankarbhai Chaudhary will also address the dignitaries.
Besides, the presiding officers of the legislatures of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Telangana, the Union minister and MPs from Goa, and legislators from the three member states will also attend the conference, the statement said.
