Supreme Court today slashed a petition demanding the ban of popular Instant Messenger, Whatsapp. The petitioner, an RTI activist from Haryana brought to the notice of the apex court that Whatsapp can lead to increase of crime in the society so needs to be banned. He also said that investigating agencies will find it to sneak in to Whatsapp messages.
He demanded the ban as it is an issue of national security. However the Supreme Court struck refused to take the petition in to consideration. The court asked the petitioner to approach TRAI about the issue. WhatsApp recently enabled all the messages with the 256-bit encryption, which cannot be hacked.
Even WhatsApp does not have the decryption keys to break the code and would not be able to help the government in national interest, even if the need arises. The petitioner alleged that WhatsApp and other messenger services violate provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, and Information Technology Act, 2000.
