Google Pay UPI payments app not 'authorised' by RBI; Delhi High Court issues notice

Delhi High Court is seeking a response from Google and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) over PIL against Google's UPI payments app Google Pay (GPay). PIL filed by Abhijit Mishra claims that Google Pay app fails to comply with RBI's Payments and Settlements Act which renders app unauthorised to operate in country.

Chief Justice Rajendra Men and Justice A J Bhambhani questioned payment regulator over a PIL, which claimed that Google Pay was acting as a payments system provider in violation of Payments and Settlements Act while it has valid authorisation from country's central banking institution to carry out such functions.

Delhi High Court has issued a tice to both Google and Reserve Bank of India, asking how is Google Pay app operating and facilitating financial transactions without requisite authorisation. tice seeks Google and Reserve Bank of India's stand on issue raised in PIL.

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PIL claims that Google Pay does t appear in list of authorised 'payment systems operators' released by Reserve Bank of India on March 29, 2019.

Republic World has verified 'Certificates of Authorisation issued by Reserve Bank of India under Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 for Setting up and Operating Payment System in India' and we did t find any mention of Google's UPI payments app in re.

We have reached out to Google India for a comment and we will update our story accordingly.

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Meanwhile, Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp happens to be ar well-kwn payment platform which is absent from Reserve Bank of India's list of 'authorised' payments app in country. WhatsApp, which currently runs a pilot for its UPI payments service, has about one million users.

In December 2018, WhatsApp's n chief executive officer Chris Daniels requested Reservice Bank of India for formal approval. Last month, Daniels resigned from his post amid Facebook's privacy woes.

Update (April 10, 2019 / 05:02 PM): In an exclusive statement to Republic World, Google has clarified its stand on a tice issued by Delhi High Court questioning Google Pay's authorisation. Here's what company has to say:

"Google Pay complies with all applicable legal requirements. Google Pay operates as a techlogy service provider to its partner banks, to allow for payments through UPI infrastructure, and is t part of payment processing or settlement. re is requirement for licensing of se services under prevailing statutory and regulatory provisions. In order to support our partner banks, our efforts in complying with government's data localisation rms are underway, and given scale and complexity, we are being mindful to prioritise data security and uninterrupted services to our users as we make this transition. central bank is apprised of progress and we remain committed to complying with laws of land," Google spokesperson told Republic World.