Right to privacy would not end with an individual’s dying and personal chats and photos of a deceased individual can’t be disclosed beneath the RTI Act, the Calcutta excessive courtroom has dominated.
The HC directed Bengal police to deal with WhatsApp messages and images shared by Rashika Jain with her buddy earlier than her dying as “private information” beneath RTI Act.
Rashika bought married in 2020, however died a 12 months later beneath mysterious circumstances. Her mother and father and in-legal guidelines filed circumstances in opposition to one another. In the probe report, police referred to the WhatsApp chats between Rashika and her buddy earlier than her marriage. Her in-legal guidelines filed an RTI software in search of particulars of the conversations. The police beneath the RTI Act disclosed this info to them in 2022, prompting her mother and father to transfer the HC.
The courtroom stated: “The Act affirms that preservation of private space is sacrosanct and any disclosure of information emanating from that space must be voluntary and without compulsion.” Delving into the “obligation to respect the dead”, it stated: “The obligation assumes a higher moral ground since the deceased can’t defend oneself against any such …intrusion into her private space…”
Can’t use proper to be forgotten as device to erase historical past: Google to Kerala HC
Google contended earlier than the Kerala excessive courtroom on Friday that the best to be forgotten ought to not be allowed to be used as a device to erase historical past. The argument got here in response to a petition filed by a girl alleging that her proper to privacy was affected after the HC judgment on marriage registration in a case filed by her was printed by a non-public web site. Advocate Sajan Poovayya, who represented Google, submitted that when a cloth is printed within the public area, by the HC web site, there may be an inherent constitutional proper that such materials ought to be accessible for assimilation and the individuals ought to have entry to it.
