Supreme Court to hear WhatsApp privacy case today

The Supreme Court will hear the WhatsApp privacy case from today. A five-judge constitution bench of the Apex Court, headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar, will start examining the privacy policy of the mobile app which provides instant messaging service. The app has come under challenge on the ground that it allegedly infringed on the fundamental rights.

The crucial matter has been listed before a second constitution bench during the summer vacation. The Centre on April 27 had told the bench that a regulatory regime for



data protection was in the offing as an individual's freedom of choice needs to be protected. The government's submission had come after the constitution bench had asked it to clarify its stand on the issue.

The apex court had on January 16 sought the responses from the Centre and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on the plea that privacy of over 157 million Indians has been infringed by social networking sites WhatsApp and Facebook for alleged commercial use of personal communication.