The Delhi High Court, while hearing a Public Interest Litigation, issued notice against Google Pay as it had been alleged that its acts amounted to unauthorized access and storage of users Aadhar details.
In the PIL, the petitioner alleged that Google Pay, which acts like a united payment interface for all the banks, violates most vulnerable right of individuals’ safeguarded under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
Further, the petitioner alleged that the unauthorized access and storage by the application also violated Aadhar Act 2016, Banking Regulations Act 1949, and the Payments and Settlement Systems Act 2007.
The petitioner, through his counsel, contended that the payment interface has not been registered or received license under the Payments and Settlement Act, 2007 in order to legally conduct business of payments and transactions.
Moreover, information received from Reserve Bank of India stated that Google Pay had not attained the status of a registered bank, financial institution, or co-operative bank under the Act of 1949.
It also had been submitted that the business activities of Google Pay had been operating in contravention of banking as well as payment laws. Even in the terms and conditions of the application, the petitioner pointed out that the company mentioned to store the payment instruction details of users.
However, the UIDAI did not receive any application from Google Pay to allow it to access, store, or use users Aadhar details. The authority did not even receive any intimation from RBI regarding the permission to access the bank details of users, submitted petitioner.
For the aforesaid issue, the Delhi High Court has issued notices and listed the matter for the month of November, 2021.
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