WhatsApp tells SC: Will comply with RBI norms

New Delhi, May 3 (IANS) The WhatsApp on Friday told the Supreme Court that it would comply with all the RBI norms when it would formally launch its payment services and for now it was having a trial run of the same that would complete by July.

"We can't launch the product without compliances", senior counsel Kapil Sibal told the bench of Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice Vineet Saran, pointing out that at present WhatsApp was running payment service on its one million users on a trial basis.

However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that WhatsApp was not complying with data localisation norms on its payment services being carried out on trial basis and has also not appointed the grievance officer in India.

Referring to the response filed by the Reserve Bank of India, Solicitor General Mehta told the bench that WhatsApp was not complying with data localization norms as is clear from the affidavit filed by RBI.

Appearing for the Centre, Mehta also pointed to the non-appointment of grievance officer by WhatsApp in India.

Appearing for the petitioner NGO Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change (CASC), counsel Virag Gupta told the court that the trial data too cannot be kept outside India and this may be violative of permission granted by National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI).

Gupta referred to the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 and sought action against WhatsApp for violation of data localization norms during the trial period.

The petitioner NGO CASC has in its petition said that WhatsApp having over 20 crore active users was the largest messaging platform, yet it had no grievance officer and was largely unregulated as laws were not being complied with.

The court directed the further hearing of the matter in the third week of July.