Synopsis: As per the petitioner, Google Pay collects and stores Aadhaar details of users when it has no permission from the Unique Identification Authority of India to do so.
A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed before the High Court of Delhi alleging unauthorised access, use and storage by Google Pay of Aadhaar data.
Abhijit Mishra, a financial economist, has filed a PIL.
As per the petitioner, Google Pay explicitly stated in its terms and conditions that it would collect, store and share user details of the bank account and Aadhaar if it did not have the authority to do so from the Unique Identification Authority of India or any other authority.
The petitioner claims that this is in violation of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, the Aadhaar Act, 2016, the Payments and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 and the Banking Regulations Act, 1949.
As claimed by him in a separate pending PIL, the petitioner added in his petition before the court that Google Pay is not registered/licensed to conduct the business of payments and transactions under the aegis of the Payments and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.
Moreover, under the aegis of the Banking Regulations Act, 1949, Google Pay is also not registered/licensed as a Bank/Co-Operative Bank/Financial Institution/Non-Banking Finance Company to conduct the payments business and process the transactions, it is added.
Therefore, under Sections 23A, 28, 29, 38 and 43 of the Aadhaar Act, 2016, the petitioner sought the direction of the Unique Identification Authority of India to initiate action against Google Pay for the unauthorised collection, storage and use of citizens’ Aadhaar information.
It is also prayed that the Unique Identification Authority of India and the Reserve Bank of India should be directed to prevent such unauthorised access from obtaining.
On December 31, 2020, the petition, filed by Advocate Payal Bahl, was listed before Justices Vibhu Bakhru and Prateek Jalan’s vacation bench.
In the matter, the court deferred hearing with a direction for the petitioner to file an affidavit detailing all the PILs filed by him to date.
The matter is to be heard next on 14th January.