The judgement is a common judgement for 9 different  writ petitions (26500/2020, 6687/2017, 20387/2018, 7642/2020, 8174/2020, 21917/2020, 2604/2021, 12699/2021 & 29448/2021 ) some of which are from those whose names have appeared in Criminal cases and some of which are from those whose names have appeared in Family Court cases.

The final findings are as follows.

i. We declare that a claim for the protection of personal information based on the right to privacy cannot co-exist in an Open Court justice system.

ii. We hold that right to be forgotten cannot be claimed in current proceedings or in a proceedings of recent origin.

It is for the Legislature to fix grounds for the invocation of such a right.

However, the Court, having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case and duration involved related to a crime or any other litigation, may permit a party to invoke the above rights to de-index and to remove the personal information of the party from search engines.

The Court, in appropriate cases, is also entitled to invoke principles related to the right to erasure to allow a party to erase and delete personal data that is available online.

iii. We declare and hold that in family and matrimonial cases, arising from the Family Court jurisdiction or otherwise and also in other cases where the law does not recognise the Open Court system, the Registry of the Court shall not publish personal information of the parties or shall not allow any form of publication containing the identity of the parties on the website or on any other information system maintained by the Court if the parties to such litigation so insist.

iv. We hold that the Registry of the High Court is bound to publish privacy notices on its website in both English and Vernacular languages.