The Delhi High Court has said the Right to be Forgotten depends on how far it has to be stretched while hearing a plea by a man seeking directions to remove two orders passed against him by the High Court from Indian Kanoon website and Google search.
The single-judge bench of Justice Rekha Palli said, “Tomorrow, people who defraud the banks will come and say please remove the judgment. We have to balance the rights.” The High Court was hearing a plea filed by a Indian citizen currently residing in Spain seeking directions to remove judgment and order passed in connection with a 7-year-old FIR registered against him, citing his Right to be Forgotten.
The judge issued notice to the Centre, Kanoon Software Pvt Ltd and Google India on his plea. According to the petition, an FIR was registered against the petitioner on August 19, 2014 by Samsung Gulf Electronics FZE Dubai and EOW Delhi. A chargesheet was filed in the said matter and police obtained non-bailable warrant for the arrest of the petitioner.
The petition has sought to remove judgement dated March 27, 2015 in W.P. (CRL.) 2585/2014 whereby the Delhi High Court had rejected the petitioner’s prayer of quashing of FIR, registered under Section 420/467/468/471/384/120B IPC for forging and fabricating valuable securities i.e. including Bills of Exchange in New Delhi.
The petition has also sought to remove the judgement dated August 20, 2018 in W.P.(CRL) 2230/2018 whereby the Delhi High Court had refused to quash the Non-Bailable Order Against the petitioner.
The petition avers, Anand filed Crl. M.A No. 11997 of 2019 in W.P(Crl.) 2230/2018, seeking direction to block search engines from accessing the judgement and order pronounced against him, but the said application was dismissed.
The petition has sought to rely upon order dated April 12, 2021 in W.P (C): 3918/2021, Jorawer Singh Munday v. Union of India, whereby the Delhi High Court had passed an interim order directing, Indian Kanoon to block the judgment of the petitioner’s acquittal under NDPS Act from being accessed through search engines such as Google, Yahoo etc. The said matter is pending before the High Court.
In the wake of the above-mentioned order, the petitioner has approached the Delhi High Court seeking a similar relief. The petition has been filed and argued by Advocate Tarun Rana assisted by Advocate Aditya Sarin. The matter has been listed for further hearing on December 1.