Former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi refuses to represent Tik Tok

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 1

Amid India-China face-off in Galwan Valley, former Attorney General and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi has refused to appear for Chinese company TikTok which planned to challenge the government’s decision to ban it along with 58 other Chinese apps.

“It’s because of the current border tensions between India and China,” Rohatgi told The Tribune, adding, “It won’t be right to appear for a Chinese company.”

On Wednesday, legal circles were abuzz with unconfirmed information about some other senior advocates also refusing to represent one or the other banned Chinese companies.

The Centre had on Monday banned Tik Tok and 58 other Chinese apps, terming them as prejudicial to sovereignty, integrity, and defence of India. It included social media apps Tiktok, WeChat and browser UC Browser.

“There have been raging concerns on aspects relating to data security and safeguarding the privacy 130 crore Indians. It has been noted recently that such concerns also pose a threat to sovereignty and security of our country. The Ministry of Information Technology has received many complaints from various sources including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and IoS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside lndia,” a Ministry of Information Technology release said.

The mining of this data posed a threat to India’s sovereignty and integrity and also raised privacy concerns, it had said.

“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,” it had stated.