MTV Roadies winner moves Delhi HC to avail 'Right to be Forgotten' to safeguard his dignity

By Amiya Kumar Kushwaha
New Delhi [India], July 22 : A winner of reality shows MTV Hero Honda Roadies 5 in 2007 and 2nd season of Big Boss in 2008, has moved the Delhi High Court seeking effective and time-bound actions in removing all the posts, videos, articles written under the name of the petitioner and thereby avail petitioner the 'Right to be Forgotten' to safeguard the petitioner's life, liberty, dignity, reputation from further jeopardising.
Delhi High Court has sought response from the Central government, Press Council of India, Press Information Bureau and Electronic Media Monitoring Centre and listed it for further hearing on December 1.
The petition was filed by Ashutosh Kaushik through advocates Akshat Bajpai, Ishanee Sharma, Shreya Gupta.
The petitioner has sought to issue an appropriate writ or direction or order thereby giving necessary directing the respondent Centre to give effective and time-bound instructions to others concerned for removing all the posts, videos, articles written under the name of petitioner, which is irrelevant in the present times and causing grave injury to the petitioner's dignity and reputation.
He also urged to pass such other writ or order or direction which the court deems necessary for safeguarding petitioner's dignity including availing petitioner the "Right to be Forgotten".
The petitioner told the court that he is a renowned public figure, a prominent actor and a reality show celebrity.
According to the plea, he had won MTV Hero Honda Roadies 5 in 2007 and 2nd season of Big Boss in 2008. Subsequently, the petitioner participated as a video jockey in MTV Roadies 8 and the 6th season of Big Boss and had acted in numerous Bollywood movies.
"However, despite attaining outstanding success in the silver screen industry, under deep agony the Petitioner had to suffer utmost psychological pain for his diminutive acts, which were erroneously committed a decade ago as the recorded videos, photos, articles of the same are available on various search engines/ online platforms," the petitioner said.
"Therefore the petitioner seeks issuance of a writ or direction or order thereby giving necessary directions to the respondents to take effective and time-bound actions in removing all the posts, videos, articles written under the name of the petitioner, which is irrelevant in the present times and are causing grave injury to the Petitioner's dignity and reputation and thereby avail petitioner the 'Right to be Forgotten' to safeguard the petitioner's life, liberty, dignity, reputation from further jeopardizing," the plea added.