Sudhir Yadav's petition mentioned that these messaging apps were helping terrorists and criminal elements by encrypting the messages.
Highlights
- Haryana based RTI activist filed a PIL seeking ban on WhatsApp in India
- The petition said messaging apps like WhatsApp were helping terrorists
- A bench headed by Chief Justice of India will hear the case on June 29
Can popular messaging apps like WhatsApp, Viber be banned, citing security encryption? The Supreme Court will be examining the issue following a Public Interest Litigation filed by Haryana based RTI activist Sudhir Yadav.
Mr Yadav's petition added that these messaging apps were helping terrorists and criminal elements by encrypting the messages.
Intercepting such encrypted messages is virtually impossible -- a problem investigating agencies on trail of terrorists admit they are facing.
Even super-computers can't decipher and intercept these messages. Decrypting a single 256-bit encrypted message would take hundreds of years, Mr Yadav said.
Such apps - including Whatsapp, Viber, Telegram, Hike and Signal -- were thus a threat to national security and should be banned, the petition said.
A bench headed by the Chief Justice of India will hear the case on June 29.