‘Popularity is not a measure of reliability’ appears to have played on the minds of the Supreme Court, which on Wednesday said messages exchanged on social media platform WhatsApp have no evidential value and that the author of such WhatsApp messages cannot be tied to them, especially in business partnerships governed by agreements. A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices A S Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy said, “What is evidential value of WhatsApp messages these days?...

The Supreme Court Monday asked the Centre and WhatsApp to reply to a fresh plea alleging lower standards of privacy for Indians in comparison to European users saying it is the "duty of the judiciary to protect citizens'' privacy.  People have grave apprehensions that they will lose their privacy and it is our duty to protect them, the top court said. "You may be two or three trillion dollar companies but people value their privacy more than money," a bench headed ...

Instant messaging platform WhatsApp has declined to share user-specific data with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), citing its privacy policy. The market regulator had written to WhatsApp, seeking information on the origin of messages that allegedly contained unpublished price-sensitive information of listed companies, sources said. The information is crucial for Sebi’s investigation into the leakage of financial data at blue-chip companies. Under current regulations...

What seems to be the first case of its kind, a Civil Court in Delhi’s Rohini accepted the blue double-tick of WhatsApp chat as a valid proof of the notice being served. A man served notice to his daughter-in-law, her parents and her friend on WhatsApp in connection with a property dispute. Once he saw ‘blue double tick’ on the chat — indicating that his message had been read — he took out a colour printout of the screenshot, and submitted it to the court as proof...

  Can a WhatsApp message received by a Judge be treated as a petition? A bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur faced the peculiar question when advocate Ashok Arora brought up the issue, saying he had sent the CJI a WhatsApp message from the US about an issue and that the court should have taken cognizance of the matter based on that. "We dont use WhatsApp. You came here from USA for this matter?" the CJI asked the advocate who instantly replied in the affirmative....