Exploring The Right To Be Forgotten: Legal Perspectives And Challenges In India And Beyond

Ajay Kumar, Assistant Professor (Selection Grade), School of Law, UPES, Dehradun

ABSTRACT

The right to be forgotten is a facet of the broader right to privacy which is recognized as an intrinsic part of the right to life in the K.S. Puttuswamy v. Union of India1 judgment in India. Internationally, this right has been recognized in many jurisdictions, especially in the European Union. The European Union came up with the General Data Protection Regulations2 (hereinafter referred to as EU GDPR) that recognizes the right of a person to get his personal information removed from the internet.3 Indian law does not specifically recognize this right under any legislation though there have been few judicial interventions where Courts on a case-to-case basis have given certain relief to the claimants of this right but at the same time, few courts have denied the existence of such right to the claimant. In 2019, the Personal Data Protection Bill (PDP Bill) was introduced in Parliament which explicitly recognized this right.4 In this article, the author discusses the concept of the right to be forgotten, its development, enforcement in various jurisdictions, the Indian scenario, and the judicial trend in India. Further, this article seeks to analyze the coverage and scope of enforcement of this right under the PDP Bill and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act), and the challenges in its enforcement in India (if any).

Keywords: Human Rights, Right to be Forgotten, Information Technology, Privacy Rights, Data Protection