Right to be forgotten: Supreme Court orders court registry to remove from internet personal details of parties in a sexual offence case

A Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh directed that the needful be done within three weeks so that the details of the parties are not visible on search engines.

In a brief but significant order augmenting the right to be forgotten as a facet of the right to privacy, the Supreme Court has directed that personal information of a petitioner and a respondent in a sexual offence case be masked on the internet so that their details are not thrown up by search engines.

The court order called 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. The IA and the Miscellaneous Application accordingly stand disposed of. The needful be done within three weeks from today by the Registry.

The case concerned offences committed on the modesty of a woman leading to sexually transmitted diseases (STD).

The petitioner moved an application contending that display of her name in the public domain with respect to offences leading to STD was causing immense loss to her due to social stigma and infringement of her personal privacy.

She pleaded the ‘right to be forgotten’ and ‘right of erasure’ as intrinsic to right of privacy.

She, therefore, requested that her name be removed/masked along with the address, identification details and case numbers to the extent that the same are not visible for search engines.

The respondent also joined in with the same request.

The Supreme Court acceded to the request and asked the registry to work out a solution.

Source: Bar and Bench