
Delhi High Court judge Justice Pratibha M. Singh on Friday recused herself from hearing the petition challenging the new Privacy Policy introduced by WhatsApp.
Justice Singh took objection to an email received by the Court from WhatsApp before announcing to recuse herself from the matter.
The e-mail pointed out that Justice Singh had appeared in a connected matter when she was a lawyer and thus, cannot hear the case again.
But later, WhatsApp withdrew the e-mail unconditionally.
"I am not going to hear this case. I was, in any case, not going to hear it," Justice Singh said even as Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma implored the judge not to recuse.
Directing for the case to be treated as a PIL, Justice Singh asked for it to be listed before a different bench for hearing on Monday.
The petition has been filed by Advocate Chaitanya Rohilla, stating that the updated Policy gives the Company virtually a 360-degree profile into a person's online activity without any government oversight.