Supreme Court recognises 'right to be forgotten', says it's part of privacy

Tribune News Service

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, July 22

Recognising “right to be forgotten” as a facet of right to privacy, the Supreme Court has ordered masking of personal details of parties to a case of sexual offence after the woman submitted that it was causing embarrassment and social stigma to her.

“We thus, call upon the Registry of the Supreme Court to examine the issue and to work out how the name of both the petitioner and respondent No.1 along with address details can be masked so that they do not appear visible for any search engine,” a Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said.

“The needful be done within three weeks from today by the Registry,” it said in its July 18 order, disposing of her plea.

The petitioner had moved an application contending that display of her name in the public domain was causing immense loss to her due to social stigma and infringement to her privacy.

“Even if the name of the respondent No.1 appears, it causes the same result. The petitioner pleads the ‘right to be forgotten’ being a right of privacy, the name of the petitioner as well as the respondent be removed/masked along with the address, identification details and case numbers to the extent that the same are not visible on search engines,” the Bench noted in its order.

Her plea was supported by the counsel for the respondent No 1.

In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court had on August 24, 2017, declared the right to privacy a fundamental right under the Constitution. In a unanimous verdict, a nine-judge Constitution Bench headed by the then CJI JS Khehar ruled that right to privacy is a part of right to life and liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

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