Delhi HC delays hearing on complaints against WhatsApp’s privacy policy till September

The Delhi High Court deferred a hearing till September on a batch of petitions challenging the 2021 privacy policy of the instant messaging application WhatsApp. A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad was informed by the parties that similar issues were pending consideration before the Supreme Court.
The high court also adjourned on similar grounds hearings till September on pleas by Facebook and WhatsApp challenging the new IT rules for social media intermediaries requiring the messaging apps to “trace” chats and make provisions to identify the first originator of the information.
The first to challenge the privacy policy, has contended before the high court that the updated privacy policy violates users’ right to privacy under the Constitution and emphasised that they can either accept it or exit the app, but they cannot opt not to share their data with other Facebook-owned or third-party apps.