Neutral Citation Number: 2023:DHC:2806
individual’s right to control their existence on the internet. The following
observation was made:
―629. The right of an individual to exercise control
over his personal data and to be able to control
his/her own life would also encompass his right to
control his existence on the internet. Needless to say
that this would not be an absolute right. The
existence of such a right does not imply that a
criminal can obliterate his past, but that there are
variant degrees of mistakes, small and big, and it
cannot be said that a person should be profiled to the
nth extent for all and sundry to know.”
43.
This right to privacy is also inextricably linked with the right to live a
life with dignity. As noted in Section 66E of the IT Act as well, individuals
have a reasonable expectation to privacy which is not lost within the
confines of a domestic relationship, or even if any intimate image is shared
with another person with the understanding and the expectation that the
same will not be shared with third persons. The context in such situations
matter with privacy being the expectation that information about an
individual will be treated appropriately and in accordance with the
individual’s expectations; it is the said individual who retains control over
any information pertaining to themselves. As a corollary, if the individual
has the right to informational privacy, it also subsumes the individual’s right
to be forgotten which has been held to be the consequence of the dignity of
an individual and, thus, a facet of the right to privacy.
44.
A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court has recently in Vysakh
K.G. v. Union of India and Ors., 2022 SCC OnLine Ker 7337, while
adjudicating upon right to privacy vis-à-vis right to information, referred to
Cécile de Terwangne’s paper on “Internet Privacy and Right to be
Signature Not Verified
Digitally Signed
By:SHAZAAD ZAKIR
Signing Date:26.04.2023
17:19:50
W.P.(CRL) 1505/2021
Page 68 of 88
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