The right to be forgotten is the right which allows a person to seek the deletion of private information from the internet searches, databases, websites, or any other public platforms under special circumstances.
This is a new concept which has been evolved by the European Union for the first time in 2014 whereby a man asked Google to remove links of an old newspaper article which spoke about his previous bankruptcy.
Since his debts were fully paid later, there was a little relevance of that article being online.
As a result of it, the European Court of Justice ruled against Google and held that in specific situations an individual might have his own data eliminated from any open information base.
Position in India:
In Indian Constitution, Article 21 deals with the right to life and personal liberty, and Indian judiciary is continuously expanding its domain. In 2017, Right to Privacy was included in Article 21 in the famous case of K.S Puttaswamy vs. Union of India.
“Right to be forgotten” is inherent aspect of one’s Right to Privacy, thus, it can be summarised that right to be forgotten actually means how to get forgotten from the internet.
Recently in 2021, a case, at the Delhi High Court, Jorawar Singh Mundy vs. Union of India, in which the Petition was filed by an American citizen of Indian origin, claiming that a previous case of 2013 in which he was absolved of all the charges and its judgement showing up on Google and Indian Kanoon has contaminated his endeavours to find a job.
Since the employer give a foundation search prior to designating, and in that search the instance of 2013 is shown. He contended that, when he is acquitted of all the charges, what is the purpose then to keep that case in open area, it is violative of his right to Privacy under Article 21.
Delhi High Court, J. Pratibha M. Singh, observed that, “there can be irreparable prejudice that may be caused to the petitioner’s social life and his career prospects” regardless of him having been at last vindicated for 2013 case.
Delhi High Court in its interim order asked Google to remove the judgement from its search results and Indian Kanoon was directed to block the judgement from being accessed by using search engines such as Google.
In November 2020, the Orissa High Court, administering for a situation connecting with the records transferred on Facebook by a rape accused, opined that “allowing such objectionable photos and videos to remain on social media platform, without the consent of a woman, is a direct affront on a woman’s modesty and more importantly her right to privacy”.
In India, there is no such law which explicitly safeguards the right to be forgotten. Nonetheless, in 2019, Ministry of Law and Justice on the recommendations of BN Shrikrishna Committee, included Right to be Forgotten as a Statutory right in the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019. However, this Bill is yet to be passed by the Parliament.
Section 20 of the Bill gives an individual the option to limit or forestall the proceeding with exposure of their own information, when such information:
1. Has served the purpose for which it was collected, or is no longer necessary for said purpose
2. Was made with the consent of individual, which consent has been withdrawn
3. Was made contrary to the PDP Bill or any other law in force
This provision is enforceable only on an order passed by the adjudicating officer appointed under this Bill.
Conclusion:
Although right to be forgotten is a significant right which protects the right to privacy of an individual but it also comes with certain limitations.
An individual can handle what information he permits to find in open space, however, this right of an individual may override the public’s right to information.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.
The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK.