Courts can’t redact name of acquitted: HC

Courts can’t redact name of acquitted: HC

K.Kaushik@timesgroup.com

Madurai:  04.08.2021

Madras high court on Tuesday observed that our criminal justice system is yet to reach such standards wherein courts can venture to pass orders for redaction of name of an accused on certain objective criteria prescribed by rules or regulations. Saying so, the court dismissed a plea moved by a man seeking to redact his name from a judgment of the court which acquitted him from a criminal case.

Justice N Anand Venkatesh observed, “This court must take judicial notice of the fact that the criminal justice system that is prevalent in this country is far from satisfactory. In various cases involving heinous crimes, this court helplessly passes orders and judgments of acquittal due to slipshod investigation, dishonest witnesses and lack of an effective witness protection system.”

The court came to the prima facie conclusion that an accused person is entitled to have his name redacted from judgments or orders and more particularly the ones that are available in the public domain and which are accessible through search engines. However, the judge said that on deeper review, he has taken cognizance of the fact that it is not as simple and straight as it sounded. There may be ramifications if such a generalised order is passed and directions are issued.

During the course of deliberation, the court’s attention was drawn to various foreign judgments and relevant regulations and enactments of various countries which specifically provide for expunction, expungement, redaction or destruction of criminal records. “No such rule or regulation exists in India for the present. In the absence of any statutory backing this court cannot undertake the exercise of issuing directions when no judicially manageable standards exist in the first place. There must be a proper policy formulated in this regard by means of specific rules. In other words, some basic criteria or parameters must be fixed, failing which such an exercise will lead to utter confusion,” observed the judge.