The Delhi High Court on Tuesday has issued notice on a petition filed by Paytm claiming damages to the tune of Rs 100 crores from Telcos including BSNL, Vodafone, MTNL, Airtel and Reliance Jio for causing damage to their reputation due to phishing activities taking place over various telecommunications networks.
A two-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jain was hearing a petition filed by online payment platform Paytm alleging fraud on its customers due to phishing activities over the various mobile networks causing financial and reputational loss to the petitioner.
Such activities the Petitioner has argued to be violative of the fundamental Right to Privacy and data integrity guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
The bench has issued notices to the Central Government, Telecom Authority of India, BSNL, Vodafone, RelinaceJio and others.
The petitioner has alleged that the telecom companies were violating their obligations under the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preferences Regulations (TCCCPR) 2018. The said regulation was notified by TRAI to prevent instances of unsolicited commercial communications.
Phishing is a cybercrime in which targets are contacted by email, telephone or text message by someone posing as a legitimate institution to lure individuals into sharing sensitive data such as personally identifiable information, banking and credit card details, and passwords.
The bench has listed the matter for next hearing on June 24.
-India Legal Bureau