Karnataka High Court asks media to consider deleting names of accused from online records after acquittal

The Karnataka High Court recently asked the media to consider erasing from online platforms the names of victims as well as accused who are acquitted in criminal cases if they demand for the same..Justice M Nagaprasanna made the appeal to the media while directing the High Court Registrar General to mask the name of a person on the High Court website.The petitioner had been discharged in a criminal case after the police found the allegations against him to be false. However, his name continued to remain on the High Court website..Finding no fault with the petitioner's demand for deletion of his name from the digital records of the High Court, Justice Nagaprasanna said,“I deem it appropriate to observe that when identical demands are made by those accused or victims, as the case would be, accused who come within the circumstances narrated hereinbefore, the Fourth Estate should also consider masking, delisting and deleting their names from their respective digital records and not drive them to this Court seeking such deletion.".In his plea before the High Court, the petitioner said that when his name is searched on any search engine, it shows him as an accused in the sexual harassment case he was discharged from.The Court was also told that the petitioner and his brothers were not getting any job due to such online records.Interestingly, the High Court on the administrative side opposed the petition and contended that the masking of name was permissible only in respect of the victim, and not the accused..However, Justice Nagaprasanna opined that the petitioner stands on a higher pedestal than any of the accused who would get acquitted after a full-blown trial. The petitioner at the threshold itself was declared to be innocent, noted the Court.While stressing on a person’s right to live with dignity, it said,“If the result of due process of law is absolving of any person of alleged guilt, those persons become the ones who would get a right to live with dignity, having no blame against them.”.On the law related to the issue, the Court said that the right to be forgotten was a facet of right to informational privacy.While referring to the existence of the legal right to be forgotten in foreign countries, Justice Nagaprasanna opined that such principles “can be paraphrased into what could become right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.”The Court also said that the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 recognizes the right of erasure of personal data..In this backdrop, the Court said that once an accused in a criminal case is acquitted honourably or is discharged by a competent court, those orders become final.“The shadow of crime, if permitted to continue in place of shadow of dignity, on any citizen, it would be travesty of the concept of life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Every citizen born in this nation, governed by the Constitution, has a right to live with dignity,” it reasoned..Thus, the Court allowed the masking of the name of the petitioner in the records of the High Court. However, it also clarified that mere erasure of the name of the petitioner in the cause title does not mean that he is entitled to seek such erasure from police records."The direction would be only to enable the internet forget, like the humans forget. If it is allowed to stay on record, the internet will never permit the humans to forget," it said..Advocate Abhinaya K represented the petitioner.Advocate BV Vidyulatha represented the High Court Registrar General.Advocate Kiran Kumar represented the State of Karnataka..[Read Judgment]