SC closes petition seeking ban on video-calling app Zoom

The Supreme Court on Tuesday closed a PIL seeking a ban on the use of the Zoom application over security and privacy concerns.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and M M Sundresh noted a submission by senior advocate Arvind Datar that the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had found nothing wrong in the usage of the application.

The counsel also asked when there is nothing wrong in using Zoom, why only it should be targetted and not WebEx etc.

The petition was filed by homemaker Harsh Chugh, who had sought a ban on the use of Zoom for official and personal purposes, claiming the software gave rise to several privacy and security concerns.

Upon hearing the counsel, the top court also declined to entertain an intervention application to place the additional documents in the matter.

During the hearing, the petitioner’s counsel contended that the government had issued certain notifications that Zoom shouldn't be used. The counsel further said that let the government say that Zoom is good to use.

The bench said it has considered the minutes of the meeting of the National Security Council Secretariat held in December 2020, regarding the security features of Zoom and nothing survived in the petition in view of this document.

The plea had also sought directions to the government to carry out an exhaustive technical study into the security threats posed by the use of the app.