On September 19, Antony Clement Rubin, the animal activist whose petition in Madras High Court started the WhatsApp traceability case, petitioned the court to amend his original prayer — remove all mention of Aadhaar and instead, ask for “mandatory linking of any government approved/authorized identities” to social media accounts for the purposes of traceability. If this application for amendment is approved in the High Court hearing today, it may potentially weaken Facebook’s transfer petition that is pending before the Supreme Court. Facebook has petition the apex court to transfer 4 petitions from 3 different high courts as they all deal with Aadhaar-social media linkage. The hearing was scheduled to take place on September 19, but the matter was not listed. Instead, the matter is listed before a new division bench comprising Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and N. Seshasayee in Court Room 5 today. In all probability, the hearing will be adjourned as the Supreme Court has restrained the Madras HC from passing any "effective orders" until it decides on the transfer petition. The next SC hearing is scheduled for September 24. Linking Aadhaar to social media accounts had emerged as a bone of contention, given the Supreme Court’s judgement on Aadhaar. As a result, the Madras High Court division bench had dismissed the possibility of any such linkage in 2018 itself, and instead expanded the scope of the case to consider intermediary liability of social media platforms, and how such companies cooperate with law enforcement agencies in crime prevention. To this…
