The Delhi High Court has clarified that its May 29 directive requiring search engines to de-index judicial records from name-based searches does not apply to Meta platforms such as Facebook. The Division Bench, comprising Justice C Hari Shankar and Justice Nivedita Anil Sharma, issued this clarification while hearing a plea filed by Meta in the right to be forgotten case, according to medianama.com.
The clarification arose after Meta approached the High Court seeking confirmation that the de-indexing order, which targeted search engines like Google and legal databases such as Indian Kanoon, did not extend to Facebook. Meta argued that Facebook is not a search engine and therefore should not be subject to the same restrictions. Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing Meta, stated that the company had already removed the URLs in question and was not challenging the original judgment but sought clarity on its applicability to Meta platforms.
The original May 29 ruling by a single-judge Bench had directed search engine operators and Indian Kanoon to restrict name-based searches for certain judicial records while allowing access through other parameters like case number and date. Indian Kanoon has appealed this ruling before the Division Bench. The Delhi High Court’s clarification underscores the distinction between search engines and social media platforms in the context of the right to be forgotten, a significant issue in digital privacy jurisprudence.
Meta’s plea and the subsequent clarification by the Division Bench provide legal clarity on the scope of de-indexing orders in India’s evolving digital privacy landscape. The court’s decision was reported by Bar and Bench and detailed on medianama.com, marking a key moment in the interpretation of the right to be forgotten as it applies to different digital platforms.