Kerala High Court passes interim order to remove name, address of litigant from judgment in matrimonial case

The Kerala High Court recently passed an interim order directing the Registrar General of the High Court to mask the personal details of the petitioner in the cause title of a judgment published on the Court's website or to put an anonymous name in the place of the petitioner's name..Justice Devan Ramachandran passed the interim order to protect the reputation and dignity of the petitioner.."Since the issue is delicate and affecting the reputation and dignity of the petitioner, I direct R5 (Registrar) to take steps to anonymise the judgment with respect to her name and address and upload it as per the usual terms," the Court's order stated. .The High Court was considering a petition filed by a woman (petitioner) who moved the Court for relief after the judgment uploaded in a matrimonial dispute to which she was a party, contained her personal details. This judgment was published on platforms such as Indian Kanoon as well as the High Court website.She contended that her address and name of her daughter were expressly shown on the Indian Kanoon website which was indexed through Google.The exhibition of her name in the cause title of the case as well as publication of this judgment resulted in substantial prejudice, the petitioner argued. .The petitioner added that such publication has affected her reputation both in workplace and society.Therefore, she urged the Court to remove her name from the webpages of Indian Kannon, the High Court and also from Google to protect her from irreparable loss, injury and hardship.The matter will be heard again after a week..The petitioner was represented by advocate Boby M Sekhar..On a related note, the question of whether personal details of litigants should be erased from online records in the public domain has arisen before the High Court earlier as well. Recently, Justice Ramachandran sought the response of the High Court administration, Google, and Indian Kanoon in a plea seeking to mask or remove the personal details of two persons from a judgment uploaded online in a criminal case. In that case, the two petitioners have argued that they have a "right to be forgotten" once they criminal case against them had been closed. The "right to be forgotten" has also been cited by a rape accused in one case, and by a rape survivor in another case.While responding to yet another such case before the Kerala High Court, Indian Kanoon had earlier asserted that the right to privacy cannot be extended to protect an individual from publications based on public records, including court orders..[Read Order]