Delhi HC seeks reply from Centre, Google LLC, Twitter on man's plea seeking removal of news article about his conviction

New Delhi [India], November 11 : The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought the reply of the Centre, Google LLC, Twitter and others on a petition seeking to remove certain news articles regarding the conviction of a man by a foreign court.
Justice Rekha Palli asked Centre, Google LLC, Twitter and others to file the reply on the plea of a petitioner seeking to take down links of the articles.
The petitioner has sought direction from the Court to remove or disable the access of such articles and blogs, the web URLs and image URL from all the websites and portals and direct the search engines and others to remove the photographs of the petitioner from the URLs.
The petitioner, in his plea filed through Advocate Rajesh Rai and Advocate Jayant Joshi, told the Court that he was convicted by Leicester Crown Court, after a trial by a jury on February 19, 2015, on charges that of fraud and blackmail. He was sentenced to a total of nine years imprisonment.
Thereafter on a POCA (Proceeds of Crime Application), he was directed on December 9, 2015 to pay Pounds Sterling 553,550 within three months, for distribution amongst victims, and in default to undergo a sentence of 5 years that was to run consequently to the
sentence of nine years that he was undergoing.
The petitioner was released from prison on March 15, 2021 after undergoing the sentence with remissions, and thereafter deported to India on July 30, 2021.
On his return, the petitioner found that articles relating to his conviction in 2015 were accessible on the internet and had adversely affected the lives of his children during his trial and incarceration were still accessible through search engines on the internet and continue to torment them in their day-to-day social life.
"Article 20 of the Constitution protects a person from prosecution and punishment for the same offence more than once. This protection is of no avail against the exposure to torment that can be inflicted on a person who has undergone the sentence imposed by law in the social life of the person and his family. The provisions of Article 21 have been interpreted by the Apex Court to include the right to privacy of a citizen," the petitioner said.
"In jurisdictions abroad, law recognises the right to reform and the right to be forgotten after a person has undergone a sentence for a crime in appropriate circumstances. There is no corresponding law in India as of date. The right to privacy is, however, broad enough to consider such cases appropriately," the plea added.