The Delhi High Court has asked Google to respond to a doctor′s request to have news stories about a criminal case filed against him in 1999 removed. The doctor wants to know if de-indexing publications can be done to prevent the URLs from appearing in search engine results. 

The physician was declared not guilty in the criminal case, and it′s unclear whether the original sessions court′s ruling is accessible online. Justice Prathiba M Singh said: "Let an affidavit be filed by Google as to whether de-indexation [of the URLs] can be done so that when the name of the petitioner is searched, the URLs do not show up. Let the affidavit be filed within two weeks."

The court ordered the Union of India and other respondents to file their answer to the petition while listing the matter on May 18 alongside a group of related petitions on the right to be forgotten.

The petitioner is a doctor, who was the subject of the contents published against him in 1999 and is now available online. The petitioner claims the publications are still in the public domain even though the FIR cleared him of all charges. The petitioner claims that both Google search results and the publisher′s websites provide access to the articles.

Reliance has contested a ruling made by the trial court on August 4, 2009, claiming there is no proof the petitioner violated any laws. In Jorawer Singh Mundy v. Union of India & Ors, Judge Singh ordered Google LLC and Google India Pvt. Ltd to delete a judgment from their search results, which is the decision on which the petitioner has relied.

Nonetheless, the court believed that the matter of de-indexing content from Google would need to be considered during todays hearing. After noting that the publications in question must be impleaded as party respondents, the court also served notice on them. 

(Source: https://www.livelaw.in/news-updates/delhi-high-court-google-de-index-publications-right-to-be-forgotten-223809)