New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP from the Communist Party of India (CPI) Binoy Viswam has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court seeking to restrict the operations of Google Pay, Amazon Pay and WhatsApp Pay for allegedly violating UPI guidelines.
In the PIL, the Parliamentarian questioned that if Chinese apps have been banned, how can the RBI allow the apps to have payment services despite violating the UPI guidelines.
Praying to restrict the actions, the MP said that it would pose national security threat and therefore the launch of WhatsApp Pay be restricted. Other apps also should not be allowed to share the information of users with their parent companies, he added.
The development comes after earlier in August, the Delhi High Court issued notice to the Centre, the Reserve bank of India (RBI) and others on a plea seeking action against Google Pay for allegedly violating RBI guidelines related to data localisation, storage and sharing norms.
The plea sought directions to Google India Digital Service Pvt Ltd to give an undertaking to not store data on its app under UPI ecosystem and further not to share the same with any third party, including its holding or parent company.
A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan sought response of all respondents and slated the matter for further hearing on September 24.
Read: Delhi HC sends notice to Google Pay over alleged violation of RBI guidelines
