UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — Karnataka HC recognises the ‘right to be forgotten’

Question 1

The nine-judge Supreme Court bench in K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017), which held privacy to be intrinsic to Article 21, was headed by which one of the following?

Accepted Answer

Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar

Answer

Justice Jasti Chelameswar

Answer

Justice Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud

Answer

Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde

Question 2

In Indian constitutional law, the expression 'qualified right to be forgotten', as located within the fundamental right to privacy, is best described as which one of the following?

Accepted Answer

An entitlement to restrict continued disclosure of one's personal data, subject to exceptions such as public interest, public health, scientific research and legal claims

Answer

An absolute entitlement to have one's personal data deleted on demand, which no consideration of public interest, public health or legal necessity may override

Answer

An entitlement that arises only after data has been retained beyond the purpose of collection, and that is exercisable solely against government data fiduciaries

Answer

An entitlement of the press to withhold the identity of its sources, subject to exceptions of public interest, public health and pending criminal investigation

Question 3

Which of the following are expressly conferred on a Data Principal as rights under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023?
1. The right to obtain information about the processing of her personal data
2. The right to seek correction and erasure of her personal data
3. The right to receive her personal data in a structured, machine-readable format for transfer to another data fiduciary
4. The right to nominate another person to exercise her rights in the event of death or incapacity
Which of the above is/are correctly identified?

Accepted Answer

1, 2 and 4

Answer

1, 2 and 3

Answer

2, 3 and 4

Answer

1 and 3 only

Question 4

Consider the following statements comparing India's statutory data protection framework with the judicial route through which the right to be forgotten is presently enforced:
1. Both the right to be forgotten and the right to data portability figured in the draft data protection Bills preceding the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, but neither was carried into the enacted law.
2. Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the obligation of storage limitation and the Data Principal's right to erasure do not operate against government entities.
3. Masking of a litigant's identity in digital court records is at present ordered by High Courts in exercise of a statutory erasure right created by the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Accepted Answer

1 and 2 only

Answer

1 only

Answer

2 and 3 only

Answer

1, 2 and 3

Question 5

With reference to the 2026 Karnataka High Court order recognising the right to be forgotten, consider the following statements:
1. The petitioner had been acquitted in 2019 of charges laid under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.
2. The relief was grounded in the right to privacy read into Article 21 of the Constitution.
3. The direction to mask the petitioner's name operated against a search engine as well as against a portal hosting judicial decisions.
4. The acquittal had been recorded on the ground that the offence charged stood compounded between the parties.
Which of the above is/are NOT correct?

Accepted Answer

4 only

Answer

1 and 3

Answer

2 and 4

Answer

1, 2 and 4

Question 6

Consider the following particulars stated in relation to the 2026 Karnataka High Court order on the right to be forgotten:
1. Presiding judge — Justice M. Nagaprasanna
2. Statute under which the petitioner had been prosecuted — the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986
3. Nationality of the petitioner — Iranian
4. Nature of the underlying prosecution — running a prostitution racket through websites
Which of the above is/are correctly identified?

Accepted Answer

1, 3 and 4

Answer

1, 2 and 3

Answer

2 and 4 only

Answer

1 and 2 only

Question 7

Once a masking order under the right to be forgotten is granted, the obligation to ensure that the judgment ceases to surface in a name-based search rests primarily on which one of the following?

Accepted Answer

The search engines and online legal databases that host or index the judgment

Answer

The Data Protection Board of India, which must direct erasure of the record by the concerned data fiduciary

Answer

The Registrar General of the High Court, who must permanently withdraw every copy of the judgment from all court records

Answer

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, acting through the grievance officers of intermediaries

UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — Karnataka HC recognises the ‘right to be forgotten’

Q1. The nine-judge Supreme Court bench in K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017), which held privacy to be intrinsic to Article 21, was headed by which one of the following?

Q2. In Indian constitutional law, the expression 'qualified right to be forgotten', as located within the fundamental right to privacy, is best described as which one of the following?

Q7. Once a masking order under the right to be forgotten is granted, the obligation to ensure that the judgment ceases to surface in a name-based search rests primarily on which one of the following?