Unconvinced by manner of 'revenge', but Abhishek Singhvi won't appear for TikTok in courts

After former Attorney General and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi on Wednesday said that he will not be representing the Chinese apps including TikTok which have been banned by the Centre on Monday, Congress leader and senior lawyer Abhishek Singhvi has also said that he would decline to appear for the video-sharing platform in courts.

'I do not intend to appear in this one'

"I will not be appearing for TikTok. I had appeared for them in a case one year ago and won in Supreme Court. I do not intend to appear in this one," ANI quoted Singhvi as saying.

Earlier, Singhvi had raised question on the banning of the apps by the government and said, "What kind of revenge are we taking by banning these Chinese apps when our soldiers have been martyred?"

'It does not feel right...'

Citing threats to national security and sovereignty, the Centre on Monday banned Chinese applications such as TikTok, Shareit, Mi Video Call, Club Factory and Cam Scanner. Rohatgi said he will not be appearing for these apps in courts against the government of India. 

"It does not feel right to appear for a Chinese company in view of the current tension," Rohatgi said. The ban had been imposed on the Apps amid continuing tensions on the line of actual control (LAC) between India and China.

TikTok had on Tuesday said that it complies with all data privacy and security requirements under the Indian law and has not shared any information of its users in India with any foreign government, including China.

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"Further, if we are requested to in the future we would not do so. We place the highest importance on user privacy and integrity. TikTok has democratized the internet by making it available in 14 Indian languages, with hundreds of millions of users, artists, storytellers, educators and performers depending on it for their livelihood, many of whom are first-time internet users," the video-sharing app said in a statement.

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'Immediate concern which requires emergency measures'

The Information Technology Ministry in a statement said it has received many complaints from various sources, including several reports about the misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for "stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users' data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have locations outside India".

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"The compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures," the statement said.

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(With agency inputs)