Right to be forgotten comes under right to privacy: Centre to Delhi High Court

The petitioners, who were discharged by Patiala House Court in 2006, said in their plea, “This [information available online] acts as deterrent to the potential clients of the petitioners and is hampering the career growth and various opportunities of the petitioner. Besides, the petitioners have to face every day the social stigma on account of the perception of being involved in smuggling/ illegal activities.”

However, the Centre has also submitted that Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 was brought out to understand the need to protect citizens and their privacy, and that the proposed law contains provisions related to the doctrine of the right to be forgotten. The Bill is currently pending before Parliament. “The Indian courts also have accepted the doctrine of right to be forgotten as the essential part of right to privacy,” the government said in the reply while referring to the orders passed by the Orissa High Court and Karnataka High Court on the legal question.

It also said that the IT Act does provide for removal of “certain unlawful information” from an intermediary platform and issuance of directions for blocking public access of any information through any computer resource under certain conditions. However, it has clarified that the case before the High Court does not fall under those conditions.

“Section 69A primarily applies to ‘national security and public order related issues’ only. Thus the issues raised by the petitioners do not fall under any of the above specific circumstances of Section 694 of the IT Act 2000,” read the reply.

Though the Centre has said that the users of intermediary platforms are prohibited from publishing content that falls under the conditions mentioned in the latest IT Rules, it has stated that erasure of content under the doctrine of right to be forgotten does not fall under any of those conditions and thus Section 79 of the IT Rules also does not apply.

Since other parties have not filed their response in the case, the court has listed the matter before the Registrar on January 19 for completion of pleadings. The matter will be listed in court only after the pleadings are complete, as per the order passed by Justice Rekha Palli on December 13.
At least six petitions invoking right to be forgotten are pending before the Delhi High Court where the petitioners are seeking removal of their personal information which forms part of court orders or news reports.