New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has asked the Reserve Bank as to how was GPay, Google’s mobile payment app, facilitating financial transactions without its authorisation.
A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice A J Bhambhani posed the query to RBI while hearing a PIL which claimed that Google Pay (GPay) was operating as a payments system provider in violation of the Payments and Settlements Act as it has no valid authorisation from the central bank to carry out such functions.
The court issued notice to Reserve Bank of India and Google India seeking their stand on the issue raised in the plea by Abhijit Mishra, who contended that GPay does not figure in RBI’s list of authorised ‘payment systems operators’ released on March 20, 2019. “How are they (GPay) operating without permission,” the bench asked RBI, and listed the matter for further hearing on April 29.
Mishra has also raised privacy concerns by claiming that “GPay through its unauthorised operation in India as a payment and settlement systems has un-monitored and unauthorised access to the personal information such as Aadhaar, PAN, (financial) transactions etc. of the public”.
The petition has sought a direction to RBI to order Google to “immediately” stop GPay’s “unauthorised operation” in India.
The petitioner has sought a “compliance audit” of GPay under the Payments and Settlements Act and to impose penalties on Google India for GPay’s unauthorised operation in contravention of the laws, regulations and procedure”.
