The Delhi High Court on Monday batted for guidelines to ensure privacy of disabled persons who approach the Court and do not want their personal information to be put in public domain. 

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia said that the issue is of seminal importance. 

The Court has said that its order urging formulation of such guidelines will be placed before the High Court on the administrative side, which will take the policy decision to ensure the privacy of individuals. 

“Having regard to the aforesaid facts and circumstances, we are of the opinion that this court on the administrative side needs to take a comprehensive policy decision and frame appropriate guidelines so as to ensure the right to privacy of those individuals who suffer from some kind of disability and intend to get their identity and information related to them masked or redacted. Accordingly let this order be placed before the Registrar General of the Court, who will take up the matter on the High Court’s administrative side for taking a policy decision on framing the guidelines accordingly,” the Court ordered. 

The Bench said that the matter will be considered again on September 29. 

Notably, the Delhi High Court had recently recognised the right to be forgotten and laid down guidelines for masking personal details in court orders.

Justice Sachin Datta had held that individuals may seek the removal or masking of personal information from online judicial records where continued accessibility causes disproportionate harm to their privacy, dignity and reputation.

The Division Bench today passed the order while dealing with an appeal filed by a disabled person for masking/redacting certain information concerning him in court records.

A single-judge had earlier rejected the plea, stating that in the absence of any binding policy, the Court can't exercise its discretionary jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution to create any such right of masking/redacting information about him. 

The man challenged the order in appeal before the Division Bench.

The Division Bench, apart from saying that a policy needs to be framed in this respect, issued notice to the High Court, the Central government and certain web portals.

Advocate Rahul Bajaj appeared for the petitioner.

Advocates Saurabh Seth along with Neelampreet Kaur, Abhiroop Rathore, Kabir Dev and Sukhvir Singh appeared for the Registrar General of the High Court.