Ashutosh Kaushik: I Committed a Mistake, Apologised and Got Punished Too But It's Still Affecting Me

Claiming ‘right to be forgotten’, reality show celebrity Ashutosh Kaushik on Thursday sought a direction from the Delhi High Court to the Centre and Google that some of his videos, photos and articles be removed from various online platforms as they have a “detrimental effect” on his life. Justice Rekha Palli issued a notice and asked the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Google LLC, Press Council of India and Electronic Media Monitoring Centre to respond to the petition which said the petitioner was invoking the ‘right to privacy and the right to be forgotten.’ The photos, videos and articles related to him being taken into custody for the alleged offence of drunken driving in 2009.

Ashutosh, who had won MTV Hero Honda Roadies 5.0 in 2007 and the second season of Big Boss in 2008, has now opened up about his decision to move the court. “I approached many news websites and channels, requesting them to remove the content (videos from the past incidents)… Some news channels removed that content, while some refused, and finally, the only option I had was to take this up legally,” he told Etimes.

He further said, “I did something wrong in my past, I paid a price, I was punished for it, but personally, that is affecting me till now. Anyone who would see those videos would assume that I am still doing those kinds of things (fights). My mother would feel bad more than me. She would ask me, ‘Ye kya hai Aashu? (What’s this Aashu?)’ I could not bear my family suffering because of this and that’s why I decided to go to court. Ho gayi mujhse galti, maang li maafi, saza bhi mil gayi, par aur kab tak mujhe saza milegi (I committed a mistake, I apologised, paid a price for it too but till when I’ll be punished for the same thing). It was for my mom that I decided to go to the court.”

Meanwhile, advocate Amit George, representing Kaushik, submitted in the court that whenever his client’s name is searched on Internet, photos relating to his past life are continued to be shown on various search engines including Google and urged the court for removal of all such posts, videos and photos relating to him. Senior advocate Arvind Nigam, representing Google, said the right to be forgotten was not yet a law in the country.

The petition said Kaushik’s valuable contribution in the television and big screen industry has earned him accolades, love and appreciation of people across India. “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, said the petition filed through advocates Akshat Bajpai, Ishanee Sharma and Shreya Gupta.

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