New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to Centre and WhatsApp on a plea to appoint Grievance Officer to enable subscribers to file complaints or grievances and comply with tax and other laws of India.
A bench issued notice on a petition filed by Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change (CASC) seeking response in two weeks. It said WhatsApp is the biggest messaging platform in India wherein it has more than 20 crore active users. As per market reports, WhatsApp has per user value of around USD 42, which makes it a Rs. 5.76 lakh crore company, i.e. greater than any Indian company.
Yet, the petitioner said WhatsApp does not comply with provision mandating grievance officer and other laws. As per National Crime Records Bureau, in 2014-16, there have been 72,829 incidents of offences against public tranquility and a total of 3,64,526 persons were arrested for the same in 2016.
