PILs against operations of Google Pay dismissed by HC

The Delhi High Court has rejected two public curiosity litigations searching for instructions to stop the operations of Google Pay for alleged violation of regulatory and privateness norms within the nation. Petitioner Abhijit Mishra alleged that the operations of Google Pay in India as a “payment system provider” have been unauthorised because it didn’t have the required permission.

Dismissing the petitions, a bench headed by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma stated Google Pay is “mere third-party app provider” which requires no authorisation from RBI beneath the Payments and Settlement Systems Act (PSS Act) and there was no advantage within the pleas.

The petitioner claimed that Google Pay didn’t discover a point out beneath the record of entities authorised beneath the PSS Act and different statutory rules for organising and working a fee system in India.

Concerns have been additionally raised in relation to Google Pay’s “unfettered access” to its clients’ private data reminiscent of Aadhaar, PAN and different transaction particulars.

In its latest order, the courtroom held that Google Pay was not a system supplier beneath the PSS Act and that it did “not find any merit in the petitioner’s contention (that) Google Pay is actively accessing and collecting sensitive and private user data”.

“It can be safely gathered that NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) is the operator of the UPI system for transactions in India and is a ‘system provider’ which is authorised by the RBI under the PSS Act to extend its services for facilitating transactions, and the transactions carried out via UPI through Google Pay are only peer-to-peer or peer-to-merchant transactions and is not a system provider under the PSS Act, 2007,” the bench, additionally comprising Justice Subramonium Prasad, stated.

“Third-party apps such as Google Pay are designed to provide a large customer base to participating banks. A third-party app such as Google Pay obtains approval from NPCI for operating on the UPI platform,” noticed the courtroom.

Stay on high of know-how and startup news that issues. Subscribe to our day by day e-newsletter for the newest and must-read tech news, delivered straight to your inbox.