There’s some concerning news from the Supreme Court regarding mobile users.
Now, if your mobile number stays inactive for 90 days, the telecom company can give it to another user without any restrictions.
To stop this from happening, a lawyer named Rajeshwari filed a request in front of Supreme Court judges Justice Sanjeev Khanna and SVN Bhatti.
However, the Supreme Court rejected this request. Additionally, the Supreme Court judges also talked about keeping user data confidential. Let’s delve into the details of this matter.
What will happen to the deactivated number after 90 days?
As per TRAI rules, until now, when a mobile number remained inactive for 90 days, the telecom company would deactivate it and assign it to a different user.
Lawyer Rajeshwari filed a petition in the Supreme Court to challenge this practice.
Advocate Sanjay Kapuri spoke for TRAI in the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court appeared to be content with his response.
TRAI, which is a part of the government, told the Supreme Court that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issued two directions in April 2017.
These directions state that a mobile number, which is deactivated because a customer didn’t use it or requested disconnection, should not be given to another customer.
They also mentioned that a minimum time of 90 days from the deactivation date, or a longer period specified by the service provider, should pass before reassigning the number.
Supreme Court said this in its decision
The Supreme Court, in rejecting the request, stated, “We won’t go ahead with the current legal plea.
TRAI’s response shows that when a mobile phone number is deactivated due to non-use or is removed upon the customer’s request, it isn’t given to a new customer for at least 90 days. It’s the responsibility of the former customer to ensure privacy.”
The court addressed the petitioner’s worries about data privacy, stating, “To protect your data on WhatsApp, you can delete your WhatsApp account that’s linked to your old phone number and remove any WhatsApp data saved on your device or in the cloud.”
