New Delhi: Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi informed the Supreme court on Tuesday that the government is mulling to enact a law to put in place a regulatory framework to protect privacy of messages in WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media applications.
Giving this information before a Constitution bench of Justices Dipak Misra, A.K. Sikri, Amitav Roy, A.M. Khanwilkar and M.M. Shantanagou-der, the A-G said the legislation will be put in place before Diwali this year and wanted the court to defer the hearing of the matter.
Senior counsel Kapil Sibal for WhatsApp and Sidharth Luthra, for Facebook submitted that the matter could not have been referred to the Constitution bench without framing the questions that needed to be referred.
They said preliminary objection was resisted by Harish Salve on the foundation that the direction for listing the matter before a five-judge bench need not be treated as a reference as postulated under Article 145 of the Constitution of India.
Mr Salve said the Chief Justice of India is the master of the roster and he has the authority on the administrative side to place the matter before a five-judge bench regard considering the gravity, significance and importance of the matter.
Mr Salve said the policy that is formulated by WhatsApp is unconscionable and is unacceptable and also suffers from constitutional vulnerability since it maladroitedly affects the freedom which is a cherished right of an individual under the Constitution.
Mr Sibal contended that WhatsApp does not share data protection of voice and messages, so no part of the content which is exchanged between two individuals is ever revealed to third party.
The bench was hearing petitions which said that privacy of citizens has been infringed by WhatsApp and Facebook, which amounted to infringement of Articles 19 (Freedom of Speech and Expression) and 21 (Right to Life) of the Constitution.
They said the social media sites compromised the privacy of communication of over 150 million people in the country and there should be some regulation.
