Supreme Court closes PIL seeking ban on use of Zoom video-calling app

New Delhi [India], February 14 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday closed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a ban on the usage of the ‘Zoom’ video conferencing application in the country that claimed it breaches privacy.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and MM Sundresh closed the petition after it was apprised that even the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) had found nothing wrong in the use of the application.
“This does not survive. Even courts use zoom… MEITY has said nothing wrong with Zoom. And why only target us, not WebEx etc?” said senior advocate Arvind Datar appearing for Zoom.

The bench then closed the case.

The top court hearing a petition filed by one Harsh Chugh, seeking a ban on the usage of the video conferencing application Zoom by Indian citizens until the formulation of appropriate legislation, claiming the app breaches privacy.

The plea filed in 2020 contended that the software application poses a threat to the privacy of the individuals using it and also breaches cybersecurity.

It said that the Zoom app is not safe and does not have end-to-end encryption and is violating the Information Technology Act, 2000, and Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information) Rules, 2009.

The CEO of ZoomVideo Communications has already apologised publicly and accepted the app to be faulty in terms of providing a secure environment digitally which is against the norms of cybersecurity, the plea said.

Chugh, in his plea, said that being a homemaker and remote worker, he is concerned about cases of hacking and cyber breaches, which are being incessantly reported.

The plea said that there is a need for legislation to be put in place in order to effectuate a standard regulation to safeguard the rights of citizens as has been brought to light by various leaders across the world.