Supreme Court closes petition seeking ban on use of Zoom app

The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday, February 14, 2023 closed a petition that was filed in 2020 seeking a ban on the usage of a software application, “Zoom” over privacy and security concerns.

The bench of judges consists of Justices, Sanjiv Khanna and MM Sundresh were told by the Senior Advocate, Arvind Datar, that earlier an inter-ministerial meeting was held to assess the concerning safety features of the application. During the argument, the Senior advocate said, “Nothing really survives in this plea.”

“Your Lordship had asked us to file additional documents. There is nothing wrong with the zoom. We had an inter-ministerial meeting. They are asking to ban zoom. Why only zoom, why not Webex, Meet?” Datar argued.

However, the advocate appearing for the petitioner relied simply on the notification issued by the government stating not to use the platform. Back in April 2020, the Cyber Coordination under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs issued an advisory indicating the secure use of app by private individuals. Furthermore, the advisory also says that the platform is not for use by the Government officers for official purposes as it is not safe.

The petition which is titled Harsh Chugh vs Union of India and Ors,  was drawn by Advocates Divye Chugh and Nimish Chib and it has been filed by Advocate Wajeeh Shafiq.