Delhi HC issues notice in plea to stop unauthorized operation of Google Pay

The Delhi High Court today issued notice in a plea seeking a direction to the Reserve Bank of India to immediately stop the “unauthorized operation” of Google Pay in India..Notice was issued to the RBI as well as the owner of Google Pay, Google India Digital Services Pvt Ltd. by a Division Bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Anup J Bhambhani..The public interest litigation, filed through Petitioner in person, advocate Abhijit Mishra, claims that the operation of Google Pay as a ‘Payment and Settlement System’ could not be allowed since it is an unauthorized entity in terms of section 4(1) of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007..As per the Section, “no person other than the Reserve Bank, shall commence or operate a payment system except under and in accordance with an authorisation issued by the Reserve Bank under the provisions of this Act..“.The Petitioner relies on a list released by the RBI on March 20, 2019, to state that Google Pay is not on the list of the ‘Payment System Operators’ authorized by the Reserve Bank of India to set up and operate in India under the Act..The Petition also informs that Court that as per a Government of India Website which promotes cashless transactions, Google Pay is not listed as a bank/entity authorized to use Unified Payments Interface (UPI)..Being an unregistered entity, the Petitioner submits, Google Pay is also not complying with the requirements and compliance of the RBI’s Master Circular on Storage of Payment System Data..It is further contended that Google Pay is completely in defiance of Section 15 (4) of the Ombudsman Scheme for Digital Transactions, 2019 as it has not appointed any Nodal officer till date..The Petition also raised concerns of privacy and welfare of Indian citizens by highlighting that Google Pay has “unmonitored and unauthorised access” to various personal information such as Aadhaar, PAN etc..This unauthorized operation is in gross violation of the principals enshrined under the purview of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, it is contended..The Petitioner, therefore, prays for a compliance audit of Google India Digital Services Private Limited under section 13, 14, 16 and 17 of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007..It also seeks imposition of penalties on Google Pay for doing its unauthorised operation in India.