We are not inclined to proceed further with the present writ
petition, as it is clear from the counter affidavit filed by
respondent no. 2 – Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)
that the cellular mobile telephone number once deactivated for non-
usage or disconnected on the request of subscriber, is not
allocated to the new subscriber for at least a period of 90 days.
It is for the earlier subscriber to take adequate steps to ensure
that privacy is maintained. The subscriber can prevent misuse of
WhatsApp data by deleting the WhatsApp account attached with the
previous phone number and erasing the WhatsApp data stored on the
local device memory/cloud/drive. Further, as per the information
available on the WhatsApp help center, to eliminate enmesh/
confusion in case of re-cycled phone numbers, they monitor account
Signatureinactivity,Not Verified and when an account is inactive for 45 days and then
Deepak Guglani
account data is removed.
Recording the aforesaid, the writ petition is dismissed.
Pending application(s), if any, shall stand disposed of.