Bombay High Court Orders Deletion of Man's Details From Online Records of Quashed Case
The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has ordered the removal of a 37-year-old man's name and personal details from its online judgments and court records, ruling that the "right to be forgotten" is an integral part of the right to privacy. The division bench of Justices Urmila Joshi-Phalke and Nivedita Mehta issued the directive on July 3, ordering the court's registry to delete the details from its website and search results.
The petitioner, an environment and climate change consultant, was booked in a criminal case in 2017. Although the High Court quashed the First Information Report (FIR) seven years ago after the parties settled the dispute amicably, unredacted digital records of the judgment remained accessible online and indexed by search engines.
The man contended that these digital records surfaced during routine professional and educational background checks. He argued that this online presence severely prejudiced his career progression and caused profound social stigma to his family.
Enforcing his fundamental rights, the petitioner argued that he has a right to protect his reputation from unfair harm, noting that the protection of reputation needs to exist not only against falsehood but also certain truths.
The division bench observed that while access to information is a fundamental aspect of democracy, it cannot be divorced from the need to balance the public's right to information with an individual's right to privacy.
The court relied on previous judgments of the Delhi and Bombay high courts to conclude that the right to privacy is a fundamental right and an intrinsic part of Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
Noting that no criminal proceedings were pending against the petitioner, the bench ruled that retaining information of criminal proceedings quashed years ago would serve no public purpose, and ordered the registry to clear his details from all online search results and records relating to the case.
