Plea moved in Delhi High Court to take down court order from Indian Kanoon

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice on a businessman's petition seeking takedown of a court order, relating to a now-closed criminal case against him, from Indian Kanoon website..Justice Sachin Datta sought response from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Indian Kanoon and Google on the petition invoking of right to be forgotten.The Bench also directed the Court’s registry to mask the petitioner's name in the present case and listed it for further hearing on February 4..A First Information Report (FIR) had been registered against the petitioner in 2024, compelling him to move the High Court for anticipatory bail. The police later filed a closure report in relation to the case.Meanwhile, the anticipatory bail order became available on Indian Kanoon. Advocate Aditya Agarwal, the counsel representing the petitioner submitted that he is a businessman, whose credibility is getting affected as the order is accessible through Google.“It creates a different image before my clients, severely prejudices my rights,” the counsel submitted while seeking takedown of the said order from Indian Kanoon..Advocate Mamta Rani, appearing for Google, informed the Court about pendency of a batch of petitions related to the right to be forgotten. “This is freedom of speech versus right to be forgotten, more particularly, right to know versus right to be forgotten in case of court orders,” she argued. She also informed the Court about pendency of a related case before the apex court wherein a decision of Madras High Court has been challenged.“Whether case titles can be masked or not has not been decided by the court,” she submitted. She submitted that in sensitive matters like POCSO Act cases, matrimonial cases and sexual harassment cases, the case title is allowed to be masked but there is no such provision for matters concerning the petitioner.