Right To Be Forgotten: Delhi HC Issues Notice On Plea For Removal Of News Items About Alleged 2017 NET Scam, As CBI Files Closure Report

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice on a plea by a CBSE official seeking removal of the links and news items published in the year 2017, regarding the alleged NET answer sheet scam case, after a closure report was filed by the CBI finding no criminal involvement of the officials.

Justice Rekha Palli has sought response from the Central Government and Google India in the matter.

The plea has been filed by Antriksh Johri, currently working as Director (IT & Projects) of CBSE, Ministry of Education, claiming that his reputation has severely been damaged due to the "irresponsible and inappropriate reporting". The plea has been moved through Advocates Anuja Saxena and Yogesh Bhardwaj.

It is the petitioner's case that after investigation in the concerned FIR, CBI had filed a Closure Report before the concerned court as it did not find any criminality or corruption against him or other officers. 

Pursuant to the aforesaid, the special judge vide Judgment dated 25/11/2019 accepted the Closure Report and agreed with CBI's observations that no case was made out against him.

"That the petitioner has personally spoken & requested to some of the officials of respondent no. 2 (Google India) to at least publish about the closure of case by the Hon'ble Court and remove earlier news link as same are available on click of button and anyone worldwide can see all the false news about the petitioner which is a kind of torture, defamation towards petitioner who is one of the most reputed person in the field of education & information technology sector," the plea reads.

It adds that every time the petitioner request the officials of Google India, they insist on getting an order in his favour and necessary directions for them for taking any steps.

"That such act & conduct of the respondents who are State & public bodies respectively and has the impact upon & reach to millions of peoples on day to day basis speaks about the high headedness, ignorant & faulty work culture who used the news in twisty manner but later on didn't bother to take update about the same and even if has update, not interested in making public aware about truth which is resulting in severe damage to reputation of petitioner and now things have become unbearable to the petitioner as so many people are still asking the same question about case," the plea adds.

Accordingly, apart from the prayer seeking removal of the links, the plea also prays for directions on the respondents to publish news regarding the judgment of 2019 wherein the Special Judge has accepted the closure report filed by CBI.

Case Title: Antriksh Johri v. Union of India & Ors.