EDITORIAL: SECOND CHANCES AND DIGITAL ERASURE: DO FORMER CONVICTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE “FORGOTTEN” IN INDIA?

Abstract

The Right to be Forgotten gained traction in India’s mainstream privacy discourse following the landmark judgement in K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, which recognized it as an aspect of the Right to Privacy under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. Earlier, the Court of Justice of the European Union had affirmed this right in the Google Spain case, thereby establishing its legitimacy in the EU. In India, the persistent issue with the Right to be Forgotten has been the lack of a developed criteria for its application. Until the introduction of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, there was no specific law remotely addressing this right. This legislative vacuum led to several attempts by the judiciary to account for it, albeit unsuccessfully. Reform in criminal cases lags even further behind, as it has been left entirely contingent on developments in the constitutional arena.