A ‘regulatory regime’ for data protection is in the offing, the government today told the Supreme Court, asserting that an individual’s freedom of choice needs to be protected.

“We are coming out with a regulatory regime on data protection. Freedom of choice needs to be protected and there cannot be any doubt over it,” Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta told a five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra.

The bench, which is hearing the WhatsApp privacy policy matter, was informed that the government was also committed to protect the freedom of choice of citizens.

The bench, also comprising Justices AK Sikri, Amitava Roy, AM Khanwilkar and MM Shantanagoudar, had asked the government to clarify its stand on the issue. The apex court also noted Mehta’s submission that “the Government is placed or stands dedicated to see that individual’s freedom of choice is not scuttled”.

During the hearing, senior advocate Harish Salve, who was appearing for petitioners Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi, placed before the bench the questions of law that were required to be dealt with in the matter. Referring to WhatsApp’s new privacy policy, he said that someone could snoop into the messages, videos and photos that a user shares or circulates on the instant messaging platform.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for WhatsApp, countered the submissions saying they were protecting privacy of users as they have an end-to-end encryption technology that cannot be looked into by a third person.

Senior counsel KK Venugopal, representing Facebook, told the bench that they have filed application in which they have raised preliminary issues on the maintainability of the plea.

The bench, which fixed the matter for hearing during the summer vacation on May 15, said the maintainability issue would be dealt with at the time of hearing arguments.

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