Content Never Dies – Just Fades Away

 

 

Context :

Can right to be forgotten beat right to info ? SC to decide

Extract :

Can a person, upon reversal of his conviction in a criminal case by a higher court, exercise his “right to be forgotten” to demand erasure from the websites the earlier judgment that had convicted him/her?

And would a higher court that acquits an accused in a criminal case by reversing the earlier judgment convicting him be within its jurisdiction to order a web portal or a legal chronicler to expunge the earlier conviction judgment to honour the acquitted person’s right to be forgotten?

These two questions were raised on Wednesday before a Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra by online legal chronicler, Indian Kanoon, challenging a Madras high court order, which after reversing a trial court judgment convicting a person of sexual assault charges, had directed the portal to remove the conviction judgment.

 

CJI Chandrachud was prima facie in disagreement with the HC’s decision, even though the bench agreed to examine this issue that underscores the tension between the “right to be forgotten” of the acquitted person and citizens’ “right to be informed”.

The CJI-led bench said, “How can a high court direct removal of an earlier judgment from a website even if it sets it aside? Every judgment of the courts in the three-tier justice delivery system is part of public record.”

The bench said that at best the HC could, in a sensitive case, direct redaction or masking of the name of an acquitted person and his personal details from a judgment uploaded on a website. “Ordering removal of a judgment is an extreme step that goes against the universal right to information,” the bench said.

Moreover, since judgment of trial courts and high courts get published in book form, SC, while adjudicating the complex issue, would find itself confronting another dimension of it — can these books containing the judgments be also barred from being perused by the public? There are several HC judgments which are reversed almost daily by SC. Would it be logical to order erasing of these HC verdicts from websites and legal chronicles?

SC stayed the Madras HC judgment and decided to adjudicate the issue.

 

My Take :

Ø  Congratulations, Your Honour !  .. …………………………………22 Mar 2019

 

Extract :

What did the judges say ?

 

"In this 'online Maya Bazar', information once registered or or shared gets

multiplied by millions of times.

  

By the time an order for deletion is passed, the bug repeats itself several

times and deletion without a trace appears improbable “

 

Related Readings :

 

Privacy ? What is that ?    ……………………………. ………………………..04  April  2017

Delusion of Privacy ?   ……………………………………………………………..10  June  2017

Privacy ? Perish the Thought !   ………………………….  ………………..18  July  2017  

Thank You Your Honours !    ……………………  …………………………   19  July  2017 

Supreme may Propose : Technology will Dispose   ……………….. 23   July  2017

Artificial Intelligence : Destroyer of Privacy ?    ……………………… 25  July  2017

Three got it Right !      ……………………………………………………………… 02  Aug  2017

Data Protection without Data Privacy ?   ………………………………….. 08  Jan  2018  

 

Extract :

Parallel to the Theory of Thermodynamics , I would like to propound the following  as far as the

 “ Theory of Information “ is concerned :

     “  Like Entropy , content keeps growing  with each and every human

     interaction , either with other humans or with his environment , and content

     can no longer remain hidden , nor can it be destroyed  “

 

with regards,

Hemen Parekh

www.My-Teacher.in  /  30 July 2024