By Astha Bhumish Shah 

The Himachal Pradesh High Court recently observed that an accused who is acquitted or honourably discharged by the process of law should not be made to carry the ‘sword of him being an accused for all his life’. It added that the right to be forgotten and the right to be left alone are inherent aspects of the right to privacy which has been recognised as part of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Additionally, it said that, in the crime, once the accused gets acquitted/honourably discharged by a competent Court of law and the order becomes final, the shadow of crime, if permitted to continue would be a travesty of the concept of life under Article 21. 

The Court made the above observations in an appeal that was moved by the State against the acquittal of an accused in a rape case. The victim, who was more than 17 years old in 2017, had run away with the accused after he had asked her to marry him. However, it was later alleged that she had been raped by the accused. Further, the victim and the accused later got married and child was also born out of the wedlock. Considering this as well as other circumstances, the Court said the prosecution had failed to establish its case beyond the reasonable doubt. Additionally, the prosecutrix herself had not supported the case of the prosecution and clearly admitted that she had married the respondent and has a three-year-old daughter out of the wedlock.  

The Court also delved into the right to be forgotten and said that the names of the victim and the accused need to be erased from the digital records. The same needs to be done prevent any irreparable hardship or prejudice caused to not just the prosecutrix and the respondent, but also to their young daughter. Accordingly, it directed masking the names of the accused as well as the victim from the digital database of Bilaspur Court as well as the High Court. (State of Himachal Pradesh v. XXX – Cr.M.P(M) No. 1234 of 2024) 

Click here to read/ download the order.