Indian Kanoon will have to mask the name of a 29-year-old rape-acquitted man from a judgment uploaded to its legal repository until the next hearing in a case on the matter, directed a recent Delhi High Court order. "In effect, therefore, if the said judgment becomes visible in a search result or google [sic] search, the name would also not be visible," added Justice Pratibha M. Singh's May 29th direction. Indian Kanoon was given a week to mask the name. Justice Singh further directed the legal portal to submit its policies on the right to be forgotten and on the masking of names in judicial orders. All respondents in the case, including the Indian government along with Indian Kanoon, were asked to file their responses to the plea within six weeks. The case will be heard next on October 5th. Why it matters: This isn't the first time that Indian Kanoon's archiving has faced privacy challenges from Indians yet to be protected by a privacy law. A similar case filed at the Kerala High Court saw a rape-accused man accuse Indian Kanoon page of violating not only his right to privacy, but his right to be forgotten (on the Internet) as well. On the flip side, Indian Kanoon argued that the Kerala case could hinder the larger public's "right to know". "Here you just want to hide your past. Let people know. Why are you trying to hide your case if you haven’t been acquitted?” said Indian Kanoon's founder Sushant Sinha while…
