Legally Speaking | Understanding the courts’ balancing act between the right to be forgotten and public access to info

On July 24, 2024, the Supreme Court was faced with an interesting question: Does a person have the right to be forgotten? The HC adopted the principle of fresh start as envisaged under the Juvenile Justice Act while recognising the petitioner’s right to forget and noted, “A careful balance has to be achieved between the concept of Open Court and open access justice, and the cry for privacy. A bench consisting of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, while hearing the petition, termed the dictate by the Madras HC a bit extreme, stating, “To say that the judgement, a public document, be pulled down will have very serious ramifications.” Global legal precedent for the right to be forgotten The right to be forgotten traces its origin to the French right of oblivion. The case reached the European Union’s Court of Justice, which held that individuals have a right to ask search engines to remove personal information and recognised the right to be forgotten or erased from the Internet. The HC, allowing the erasure, noted, “This would be in line with the trend in western countries of the 'right to be forgotten' in sensitive cases involving women in general and highly sensitive cases involving rape or affecting the modesty and reputation of the person concerned.” The same year Supreme Court in the landmark Justice K.S.Puttaswamy v. Union of India and Others judgment referred to the right to be forgotten.