New Delhi: Delhi High Court has directed its registry and district courts to mask a sexual assault survivor’s identity from past judicial orders, holding that “the protection against disclosure attaches to the allegation itself, irrespective of whether the accused was summoned for the offence”.
The petitioner had filed a criminal complaint on Feb 17, 2007, alleging offences, including rape under Section 376 IPC. A metropolitan magistrate declined to summon the accused for rape in 2011, issuing summons only under Section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) IPC. Her revision petition was dismissed by an additional sessions judge in 2013, followed by the dismissal of her petition before the high court in 2016.
It also said search engines and third-party portals must mask such identifiers when approached by the survivor, observing that disclosure serves “no public interest” and only leads to “social victimisation” and ostracisation. Distinguishing a survivor’s right to anonymity from an accused person’s plea to erase records, the court said the petitioner was “not an accused seeking to be forgotten”. “The protection attaches to the allegation itself,” the court pointed out. She told the court that the accused circulated copies among her neighbours, subjecting her to “daily taunts, physical violence and social ostracism”. Referring to precedents prohibiting such exposure, Justice Mahajan reiterated that identity protection extended beyond withholding a survivor’s name to preventing disclosure of any material through which her identity became “discernible”.
The orders passed during these proceedings carried her full name, parentage and residential address and were published on court websites and third-party legal portals. It also recalled the prohibition on publishing identifying details and placing FIRs relating to rape and Pocso offences in the public domain.