The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a PIL
seeking directions to the Centre to ban the operation and use of WhatsApp if it
does not comply with the orders of the authorities in the country.
A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Aravind Kumar
said it was not inclined to entertain the plea filed by Kerala resident
Omanakuttan KG, a software engineer.
Omanakuttan in his plea contended that the messaging
platform had refused to comply with the Information Technology (Intermediary
Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
The PIL alleged that WhatsApp was violating the
fundamental rights of the citizens guaranteed under Article 21 of the
Constitution and posing a potential threat to national interest and national
security.
"If the app was not willing to change its
technology and did not cooperate with the government, it should not be allowed
to operate in the country. The Centre had banned many websites and mobile apps
for acting against the interest of the country," the plea said.