Justice Pratibha Singh, a Delhi High Court judge, on Friday recused herself from hearing a petition questioning the validity of the updated privacy policy of instant messaging application WhatsApp, apparently after an email referred to her appearing in a connected matter as a lawyer.
Even though WhatsApp offered to withdraw the mail unconditionally, Justice Singh preferred to opt out of the hearing, expressing her displeasure, saying she would not have heard the matter anyway.
During the brief hearing, Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma asked the judge not to recuse. "There can't be a better person to hear this matter. It is a very important question of law," Sharma said.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for WhatsApp said the matter could be sent a single judge. The case is likely to come up for hearing before a separate bench on January 18.
Advocate Chaitanya Rohilla filed a PIL, contending that the new privacy policy of WhatsApp absolutely violated the Right to Privacy guaranteed under Part III of the Constitution.
He claimed the new policy "virtually gives a 360-degree profile into a person's online activity", without any "government oversight". He further contended the updated privacy policy took away the choice of a user to not share their data with other Facebook-owned apps and third-party apps. WhatsApp is owned by Facebook.
The petitioner sought an immediate stay on the new privacy policy of WhatsApp and a direction to the Centre for issuing guidelines.
WhatsApp updated its privacy policy made it compulsory for its users to accept those terms and conditions failing which the services of the instant messaging app would be blocked after February 8.
(Published 15 January 2021, 13:15 IST)
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