Right to be forgotten

• Centre told the Delhi High Court that the provisions of the Information Technology Act do not provide for the removal of court orders passed against a person merely on account of his right to be forgotten.
• The Centre said that although the ""right to be forgotten"" is a component of the fundamental right to privacy, it plays no role in the Matter.
• This ""right"" — a legal principle that is not yet established by legislation in India — has been the subject of petitions in several courts.

What is the right to be forgotten?

• It enables a person to request that private information be removed from the Internet.
• The notion has gained acceptance in certain countries outside India, notably in the European Union.
• While the right is not recognized by Indian law, it has recently been ruled to be an integral aspect of the right to privacy by Indian courts.
• At least eight applications have been filed in the Delhi High Court, asking for the removal of private information from the Internet, as well as court records of previous convictions and processes, and news reports from earlier occurrences.
• So yet, just a few people have been able to obtain that remedy from the courts.

India’s Stance

• In the KS Puttaswamy verdict (2017), the right to privacy was recognized as a fundamental right, and the 'right to be forgotten' is growing in India.
• The government claims that the Personal Data Protection Bill includes provisions for the 'right to be forgotten' doctrine.

How have courts ruled on this?

• In a civil case involving the removal of certain news reports about MeToo allegations against a media house's managing director, the Delhi High Court ruled that the ""right to be forgotten"" and ""right to be left alone"" are inherent aspects of the right to privacy, and restrained republication of these news reports.
• In a 2015 decision, the Karnataka High Court directed its registry to guarantee that any Internet search engine did not include a woman's name.
• In a case involving videos uploaded on Facebook by a rape suspect, the Odisha High Court ruled in November 2020 that ""allowing such objectionable photos and videos to remain on a social media platform, without the consent of a woman, is a direct affront to a woman's modesty and, more importantly, her right to privacy.""

Challenges Associated With Right to Be Forgotten

• Legal Issue: The right to be forgotten may clash with issues surrounding public records.
• Section 74 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, judgements have always been recognised as public documents and fall under the concept of a public document.
• Report by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, the Right to Access Official Public Records (RTBF) cannot be extended to official public records, particularly court records, because this would weaken public trust in the judicial system in the long term.
• Public Domain Information Is Like Toothpaste: It's like toothpaste: once it's out of the tube, it's never coming back, and once it is in the public domain, it's never going away in the digital age.
• Individual vs. Society: The right to be forgotten creates a conflict between individuals' right to privacy and society's right to knowledge and press freedom.

Way forward

• Making Privacy a Reasonable Limitation: A substantial revision to the Constitution is required to add privacy as a criterion for reasonable restriction under Article 19 (2) in order to effectuate the right to be forgotten.
• Balancing Privacy and Information: A framework is needed, and the right to be forgotten can be limited.
• The Right is required in order for people to have more and greater control over their personal information on the internet.
• Countries must consider how to develop the appropriate constitutive principles for the logical space of online information.
• Victims of sexually explicit videos/pictures frequently placed on social media platforms by perpetrators to frighten and harass women may be able to use the Right to be Forgotten as a remedy.