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Showing contexts for: right to be forgotten in Jitendra Meena vs The State Of Rajasthan ... on 17 January, 2024Matching Fragments
13. This Court is conscious of the 'right to be forgotten' which has been referred and dealt with in the order dated 12.04.2021 passed by the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi in the case of Jorawer [2024:RJ-JD:2690] (12 of 16) [CW-9143/2021] Singh Mundy @ Jorawar Singh Mundy Vs. Union of India and Ors. (WP(C) 3981/2021).
13.1. On a conjoint consideration of the 'right to be forgotten' as enumerated in the case of Jorawer Singh Mundy @ Jorawar Singh Mundy (supra) as well as the enactment of Sections 3
(xiv) & 24 of the Act of 2015 as well as the Rule 14 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Model Rules, 2016 therein, this Court observes that in the cases of juvenile delinquency, if any criminal antecedent record of a juvenile is allowed to remain intact, to be accessed, amongst others, by using the technology tools, the same may not only bring humiliation and discredit to the juvenile, but may also adversely impact the future prospects of the juvenile, among other things. 13.2. This Court does not wish to enter into the realm of broader 'right to be forgotten', but, at present, is specifically considering the 'right to be forgotten' for a juvenile in the perspective of Section 24 of the Act of 2015 to be an absolute right for safeguarding future prospects of such juvenile. 13.3. Such a disclosure would not only affect the 'right to be forgotten' of a juvenile, but would also defeat the very purpose and intent of the legislature behind enacting the Act of 2015, and incorporating Section 24 therein. Arising of such circumstances, would also result into defeating the very legislative intent of the Act of 2015, more particularly, as regards the future employment and the like prospects of a juvenile, as thereby, the rehabilitation of the juvenile and his socio-economic stability would be adversely impacted, which may lead the juvenile to again resort to the [2024:RJ-JD:2690] (13 of 16) [CW-9143/2021] criminal delinquency. This is more so when, the present day developing societies are dynamic and self-explanatory in its complexity followed by never-ending changes, and the juvenile is no exception to it, rather much more vulnerable, because the negativity of his (juvenile's) past life, despite enactment of a much strong law like the Act of 2015, legislative intent of which is to remove his criminal antecedents from the record, rather destroying of the complete record thereof, if allowed to sustain and remain intact, the same would be revisited for oblivious reasons, against the welfare and future well being of the juvenile, thereby bringing future embarrassments to the juvenile. 13.4. Section 12 of the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958, speaks of 'removal of disqualification attaching to conviction', but the language employed in Section 24 of the Act of 2015 is not only for excluding or erasing the criminal antecedent record, but goes a step forward, by laying down a provision that the criminal antecedent record of a juvenile be erased/destroyed completely, so that such previous conviction or criminal delinquency of a juvenile would not be carried forward, so as to prevent any adverse impact of his previous delinquency, upon his future prospects.
19. This Court further holds that the 'right to be forgotten', regarding a Juvenile, where Section 24 of the Act of 2015, shall remain a definite right and a juvenile, who has been given the benefit of Section 24 shall be entitled for erasure of his juvenile delinquency by not putting it on record anywhere, because creation or perpetuation of such record, may highlight a kind of embarrassment to the juvenile, which in turn, would certainly have an adverse impact on his future prospects, which includes a selection process for public employment, and goes against the legislative intention of juvenile laws.
20. This Court directs that the 'right to be forgotten' for juvenile by removal/destroying of the record of juvenile delinquency is an absolute right, and therefore, to give it a full meaning, the State [2024:RJ-JD:2690] (16 of 16) [CW-9143/2021] as well as other Bodies falling under the definition of 'State' as envisaged under Article 12 of the Constitution of India, are hereby lawfully restrained from seeking any information, in future, from the then juvenile about the previous record/information of his juvenile delinquency, in cases where the benefit of Section 24 of the Act of 2015 has been extended, so as to prevent any adverse impact of such delinquency on the future prospects of the juvenile.