Acquitted person seeks Kerala HC help to remove references to him as 'accused' on Internet

An acquitted person in a cheating case has moved the Kerala High Court to remove references to his name as an 'accused' on Internet platforms.

The petitioner, S. Sakeer Hussain contended that such references amount to violation of his right to privacy and right to reputation under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.

Hearing the petition on Thursday,  the court sought the responses of the central and state governments as well as search engine Google and an English newspaper.

"Reputation of a person is neither metaphysical nor a property in terms of mundane assets but an integral part of his sublime frame and a dent in it is a rupture of a person's dignity, negates and infringes fundamental values of citizenry right," read the plea.

The plea also pointed out that a judgment of acquittal gives the accused a right of getting an automatic expungement of his name from all records and particularly from those in the public domain.

When a judge records an order of acquittal, the identity of a person as an accused is completely wiped out, the petitioner said.

"In the entire search result, the petitioner is identified as an accused even though he has been ultimately acquitted from all charges," stated the petitioner.

He also pointed out that his daughter's marriage was affected because of this issue.

He has urged the High Court to direct the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the state government to redact his name from the public domain and to protect his right to reputation.