Acknowledging ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ as yet another facet of Article 21 (Right to Life and Personal Liberty) of the Indian Constitution, the Orissa High Court has advocated for enforcement of such a right through the process of court.
While denying bail to an accused for allegedly making viral on the social media intimate scenes recorded with his female friend, Justice SK Panigrahi on Monday said even as the accused has deleted those obscene materials, there is no mechanism available with respect to the victim to get the objectionable contents permanently deleted from the server of the social media platform. “Though the statute prescribes penal action for the accused, the rights of the victim, especially her right to privacy,
which is intricately linked to her right to get deleted in so far as those objectionable photos have been left unresolved,” Justice Panigrahi said, adding that presently, there is no statute which provides a right to be forgotten/getting the photos erased from the server permanently.
Calling for a widespread debate on the issue, Justice Panigrahi was of the opinion for a clear-cut demarcation of institutional boundaries and redressal of many delicate issues which hitherto remain unaddressed in Indian jurisdiction.
“It is also an undeniable fact that the implementation of right to be forgotten is a thorny issue in terms of practicality and technological nuances,” he nevertheless observed.
