Anushka Mansharamani
Justice Prathiba M Singh of Delhi High Court rescued herself from the hearing of the petition that challenged WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy.
Before announcing her withdrawal, Justice Prathiba M Singh took objection to the email received by the Court.
The email sent by Facebook explicitly pointed out that Justice Prathiba M Singh had earlier appeared in a matter connected to this case when she was a lawyer and thereby could not hear this case.
Justice Prathiba M Singh stated, “I am not going to hear this case. I was, in any case, not going to hear it.”
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma on the other hand asked the judge to not rescue.
The matter is listed for hearing on 18th January.
Justice Prathiba M Singh has been a sitting judge of the Delhi High Court since May 2017 and in 2016 she represented the petitioners in a case filed against WhatsApp.
On 15th January, advocate Chaitanya Rohilla contended in a petition put up that the revised policy of WhatsApp was in violation of fundamental rights.
The plea further submitted that Facebook’s owned platform policy provided “360-degree profile into a person’s online activity,”
The petition stated, “WhatsApp has made a mockery out of our fundamental right to privacy while discharging a public function in India, besides jeopardizing the National Security of the country by sharing, transmitting and storing the user’s data in some another country and that data, in turn, will be governed by the laws of that foreign country.”
There are concerns over the policy raised and other messaging services like Telegram and Signal have seen a surge in viewership.
WhatsApp did give clarifications on the concerns raised and stated, “We want to be clear that the policy update does not affect the privacy of your messages with friends or family in any way. Instead, this update includes changes related to messaging a business on WhatsApp, which is optional, and provides further transparency about how we collect and use data.”
However, the Union government has begun the examination of the new policy to check the potential threats to privacy.