Google Pay Alleged to Operate Without Authorisation, Delhi High Court Asks RBI and Google to Respond

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Google India Digital Services Private Limited to file a reply on the plea alleging Google Pay not being listed as an authorised operator as per list of the 'Payment System Operators'.

A division bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani issued notice to the RBI and Google India Digital Services Private Limited on a Public interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Abhijit Mishra.

The petitioner has sought direction to the RBI to stop Google Pay operation in India.

He has requested the court to impose penalties on the Google India Digital Services Private Limited for doing unauthorised operation in India.

In a statement to Gadgets 360, a Google spokesperson provided the following statement, "Google Pay complies with all applicable legal requirements. Google Pay operates as a technology service provider to its partner banks, to allow for payments through the UPI infrastructure, and is not part of payment processing or settlement. There is no requirement for licensing of these services under the prevailing statutory and regulatory provisions. In order to support our partner banks, our efforts in complying with the government's data localisation norms are underway, and given the scale and complexity, we are being mindful to prioritise data security and uninterrupted services to our users as we make this transition. The central bank is apprised of the progress and we remain committed to complying with the laws of the land."

The petitioner in his plea said that he is concerned with the welfare of Indian economic and banking system in the view of the privacy of Indian citizens.

He said that Google Pay is doing unauthorized operation in India as per the Payment and Settlement Systems in defiance of the Section 4 subsection 1 of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, published by the Reserve Bank of India on March 20, 2019.

The said section clearly mentions that no person, other than the RBI, system not shall commence or operate a payment system except to operate under and in accordance with an authorization issued without by the RBI.

"The Google India Digital Services Private Limited doing business as Google Pay though its unauthorized operation in India as Payment and Settlement Systems has unmonitored and unauthorized access to the personal information such as Aadhar, PAN, Transaction etc. of the public by acting as a Payment and Settlement Systems," read the plea.