First Right to Privacy case filed in Delhi High court

Less than a month after the Supreme Court ruled that Right to Privacy is a Fundamental Right, the first case where a person is asserting his right had been filed in the Delhi High court stating that his privacy has been misused by food firms Food Panda and Dunkin' Donuts by sending him 'Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC) messages on his phone despite being registered on the 'Do Not Disturb' directory of the Bharti Airtel.

Justice Vibhu Bhakru issued notices to the two food firms, along with the Ministry of Electronics and Communication, Ministry of Telecommunication and Bharti Airtel and sought a reply within four weeks on the plea which alleged that the petitioner's personal data has been stored for the purpose of direct marketing without obtaining lawful consent from him.

The petition, filed by Advocate Arvind Singh, had alleged that Food Panda and Dunkin' Donuts were misusing his personal information and he had never given them consent for such messages. He also alleged that he was unaware that his data was being stored as he was never issued a notification about this.

Food Panda is a global mobile food delivery market place headquartered in Berlin and operates in 43 countries.

Dunkin Doughnuts is a private limited company with a registered office in Gurgaon, Haryana and operates via an online medium.

The petitioner said that he had raised objections with the food chains and sought justification on sending the messages. However, despite several apologies and promises, he continues to receive them two to four times a day.
The plea claimed that it is the clear violation of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, breaching petitioner's Fundamental Right of Pirvacy engraved therein in Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

The petition also claimed that he has found out that the food chains obtain such consent forcibly and do not abide by their own clause pertaining to the privacy policy on the mobile application and their website, thereby further violating the (SDPI) and Intermediary Rules 2011.

Singh said that he made the Ministry of Electronics and Communication, Ministry of Telecommunication and Bharti Airtel Limited a party in the case as they failed to discharge its statutory duty responsibility towards data protection and privacy.

On August 24, the nine judge constitution bench of the apex court had ruled that Right to Privacy is a Fundamental Right. It said that the Right to Privacy is protected intrinsically as part of rights guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.