Right to Be Forgotten:
The Delhi High Court has recognized the ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ (RTBF) as an intrinsic component of the Right to Privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution.
- Right to be Forgotten (RTBF) allows individuals to seek removal of personal information from digital platforms when it becomes outdated, irrelevant, or infringes upon privacy.
- The right was recognized by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the 2014 Google Spain case, which held that search engines must remove information that is no longer relevant or excessive upon request.
- The court ruled that the RTBF empowers citizens to seek the removal of personal data from the public digital domain when its continuous availability no longer serves a legitimate public interest.
- The court explicitly observed that even in the absence of a comprehensive statutory framework in India explicitly governing the RTBF, constitutional courts have the power to recognize and enforce this right.
- The court ordered authorities, search engine operators (like Google), and legal databases to mask personal identifiers and disable “name-based search functionality” for specified cases, ruling that these de-indexing directions will operate globally.
- While acknowledging that the principle of open justice demands court proceedings stay accessible, it does not mandate that a private citizen’s name must act as a permanent, searchable key via commercial search engines.
- Open justice ensures transparency, not the perpetual amplification of an individual’s personal or legal struggles.
- Individuals who are acquitted, discharged, or whose cases are quashed or settled have the right to have these outcomes accurately reflected online.
- The Court said personal identifiers may be masked in publicly accessible judgments, but the legal reasoning, findings and conclusions must remain intact, with unredacted records preserved for legitimate legal purposes.
