The Court passed the right to be forgotten judgment on December 22, 2022, which dealt with the manner in which the right applies to publication of court judgments and proceedings, in the absence of any specific legislation.
The judgment was delivered on a batch of pleas moved by certain litigants seeking the erasure of their personal details that were appearing on Google search and on the legal resource website Indian Kanoon, despite their acquittal in those cases. Some of the petitioners in the batch of pleas were involved in matrimonial and custody disputes.
The Court had observed that even though making court judgments available in search results cannot be faulted, it cannot be said that Google has no control over the information that gets thrown up in search results.
“We cannot hold that Google is content blind to the publications made online; can they allow any prohibited nature of content to appear online? For example, paedophilic content,” the Court had said.
Moreover, it opined that that in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is quite possible for Google to identify the nature of the content and remove the same.
“Google is not a mere passive conduit. They are now using AI tools to identify the needs and requirements of a user online and attempting to bring out the best results in what they are looking for online. Keeping aside the Intermediary Rules etc., we are of the firm view that Google cannot claim itself as a mere intermediary, allowing the contents to appear for the viewers or users in the digital platform…..The publication of any valid records is protected by the Constitution as forming part of Article 19(1)(a), the right to freedom of speech and expression. There is no difficulty for Google during the era of advancement of AI to create a tool and identify particular data and remove the same. If that is not done, it would really infringe the claim based on the right to be forgotten,” the judgment stated.
It is these observations that prompted Google INC to file the present review petition.
However, the Court disposed of the review petition stating it finds no reason to expunge the observations from the said judgments.
Source: Barandbench
