Delhi High Court: In a case wherein the petitioner approached this Court seeking masking of his name in a judgment dated 4-7-2018 of the Court of the ASJ, Rohini Courts, titled ‘State v. SK’, a Single Judge Bench of Prathiba M. Singh, J., after noting that no case was made against the petitioner beyond reasonable doubt and the testimony of the prosecutrix was held to be not trustworthy, directed Indian Kanoon that the name of the petitioner should be masked from the judgment within a week. The Court further directed Indian Kanoon to place on record an affidavit stating its policy in respect of the right to be forgotten and of masking of names in such cases including in judgments of this Court and in orders and decisions passed by the Trial Courts.
Background
The petitioner submitted that he was 29 years of age, and an FIR was registered against him under Sections and of the . Though the charge sheet was filed, the petitioner was acquitted of all charges. As per the said judgment, the prosecutrix’s testimony was not held to be trustworthy and reliable and was also held to be not corroborated on material points with the testimony of other prosecution witnesses.
Thus, the petitioner submitted that he had currently been made to suffer immensely due to the existence of the said judgment on the internet. Even a mere search on the web reflects the name of the petitioner and the same was affecting his personal life and family life.
Analysis, Law, and Decision
The Court noted that no case was made against the petitioner beyond reasonable doubt and the Court had held the testimony of the prosecutrix as being not trustworthy.
The Court after observing that the judgment was openly available on the Indian Kanoon website and was also accessible through any web search on Google Search, directed that the name of the petitioner should be masked on the Indian Kanoon portal and in effect, therefore, if the said judgment became visible in a search result or google search, the name would also not be visible. Thus, the Court directed Indian Kanoon to remove/mask the name of the petitioner from the judgment within a week.
The Court further directed Indian Kanoon to place on record an affidavit stating its policy in respect of the right to be forgotten and of masking of names in such cases including in judgments of this Court and in orders and decisions passed by the Trial Courts.
The matter would next be listed on 5-10-2023.
[SK v. Union of India, W.P. (C) 5400 of 2023, Order dated 29-5-2023]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the Petitioner: Prashant Diwan, Kushika Chachra, Advocates;
For the Respondents: Ravi Prakash, CGSC; Ankit Verma, Farman Ali, Astu Khandelwal, Usha Jamnal, Yasharth Shukla, Mamta Rani Jha, Rohan Ahuja, Shruttima Ehersa, Vatsalya Vishal, Amishi Sodani, Advocates.
The post appeared first on .