Messaging application WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit in the Delhi High Court against the Modi government's new digital rules effecting from Wednesday. The rules will require WhatsApp to trace the origin of messages sent on the app, appoint a compliance officer in India, set up a grievance mechanism and take down any content within 36 hours of a legal order.

Filing the case on Tuesday, the Facebook-owned app said such digital rules would violate privacy protections of users.

WhatsApp said in a statement as quoted by NDTV, "Requiring messaging apps to 'trace' chats is the equivalent of asking us to keep a fingerprint of every single message sent on WhatsApp, which would break end-to-end encryption and fundamentally undermines people's right to privacy."

The messaging app has cited its end-to-end encryption which would be violated if these rules are followed.

The Modi government had earlier given three months to social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp to comply with the new digital rules but none of them agreed to it even as the deadline expired on Wednesday.

The social media users expressed their fear on Twitter on Tuesday over whether the three platforms would be blocked by the government from May 26.

India already has its indigenous social media platforms like Koo as an alternative for Twitter.