In a significant ruling on digital privacy, the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court has recognised the “right to be forgotten” as an integral part of the fundamental right to privacy and ordered the removal of a man’s name and personal details from court records available online after the criminal case against him was quashed.
A division bench comprising Justices Urmila Joshi Phalke and Nivedita Mehta observed that once criminal proceedings against an individual have been set aside, there is no larger public interest in allowing information related to those proceedings to remain permanently accessible on the internet.
The order came while hearing a petition filed by a 37-year-old man who sought the masking of his identity and personal details from digital copies of court orders and judgments published on the Bombay High Court’s website.
According to the petition, Nagpur Police had registered a criminal case against the man in 2017. Subsequently, the parties involved resolved the dispute amicably, following which the petitioner approached the High Court seeking quashing of the FIR. The court accepted the request and terminated the criminal proceedings in the same year.
Despite the case being closed and the petitioner being legally cleared of all allegations, details of the proceedings continued to remain publicly accessible online. The petitioner argued that these records frequently surfaced during employment verification and educational background checks, adversely affecting his professional opportunities and subjecting him to social stigma.
Seeking relief, the petitioner invoked his right to be forgotten and requested the court to direct the removal of his identity from publicly available judicial records.
Agreeing with the plea, the High Court noted that while public access to information is an important feature of a democratic system, it must be balanced against an individual’s right to privacy and dignity. Taking into account that the dispute had been settled amicably and the criminal proceedings had already been quashed, the bench held that the petition deserved to be allowed.
The court subsequently directed the High Court Registry to delete the petitioner’s name and identifying details from its records available in the public domain.
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