Sreya Kanugula
The Supreme Court made the disposal of the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition which sought action against fake loan apps created by the Chinese after asking the plea’s petitioner to make an approach to the Union Ministry with suitable representation.
The bench led by the Chief Justice of India had been considering the PIL filed by a non-governmental organisation named “Save Them India Foundation” through their chairman, Mr. Praveen Kalaiselvan.
The problem at hand was highlighted by the petitioner to be about several active mobile-based applications during the pandemic lock down period which had honey-trapped several innocent Indian citizens through enticing easy loan offers.
The petitioner stated that the matter was a concern of national security as well because most of the said apps were backed by companies of Chinese origin. Several remain unauthorized and illegal since no requisite permission was given by the Reserve Bank of India to these apps to execute micro-financing.
When the matter was looked into, Chief Justice Bobde informed the counsel, “You should make a representation to the Home Ministry of Finance Ministry.”
The submission on the serious judicial intervention being required on this was given by the council. On that, the CJI further stated, “These are sensitive and high-security matters. Make a representation to the appropriate Ministry. It’s not a judicial matter.”
It was also submitted by the petitioner that monitoring and heavy surveillance on the Prime Minister, several judges in the country, the President, and other high officials were being conducted by China.
On these grounds, an inquiry was being sought on such a matter of foreign surveillance.
A reference was also made to a published report from The Indian Express dated 15th September of 2020, with regards to the submission made.
The petitioner stated that India was being attacked by China through these misleading money-lend applications that had led to the destruction of several lives of the general public.
“These apps commit data theft and transfer the personal data of the Indian Citizens to China where companies sell the Information of Indian citizens. Digital loan apps on google play store provide small tenure loans/ microloans (unsecured) from 7-60 days with minimal documentation such as Aadhar card, Pan Card and Selfie of the borrower, these apps have been identified to potentially high risk for its users. The data uploaded in these apps is being sold in the dark web. The recovery of such loans is being done against the policy of RBI fair practice codes. Black mailing, Defaming, mentally harassing are some day to day procedures for the recovery of these loans“, the plea further stated.
The first mention from the authorities on how these apps were based out of China came from the Hyderabad police in a press meeting held in late December 2020.
They continued their crackdown on these instant loan-providing app companies and new evidence had emerged on how Chinese firms were involved in this mess.