Petition against WhatsApp payment services filed before Supreme Court

A petition has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre to compel WhatsApp to appoint a Grievance Officer, as mandated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)..The RBI circular mandates that to run a payment service in India, a company must have its offices and payments in India. This rule appears to be violated by instant messaging service company, considering that it is a foreign company having no offices or servers in India..The PIL seeks a direction to WhatsApp to appoint a Grievance Officer and to comply with the tax laws and other laws in India. It is claimed that WhatsApp is being allowed to continue with its payments services and other services “without any checks”..“WhatsApp is a foreign company with no office or servers in India. To run Payments Service in India, WhatsApp is obligated to have its office and payments in India. Moreover, it is also required to have a Grievance Officer for users in India. Yet, it is being allowed to continue with its Payments and other services, without any checks,” states the petition..According to the petition, WhatsApp has over 20 crore active users in India, and yet, the messaging service has no grievance redressal number for users in India..The petition states that despite being the largest messaging platform in India, WhatsApp remains largely unregulated, given that the laws in place are not complied with..Citing the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data for the period between 2014 and 2016, the petition states that as many as 3,64,526 persons were arrested for offences against public tranquility. It is also alleged that the spike in rumour-based crimes is directly proportional to the rise in the number of WhatsApp users in India..Filed by think-tank Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change through Advocates PK Seth and Archana Pathak Dave, the petition prays for a writ of mandamus to be issued, directing the company to appoint a Grievance Officer in line with Rule 3(11) of the Information and Technology (Intermediaries guidelines) Rules, 2011.