The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that there cannot be a bail condition directing accused to share their Google Maps location to track their movements, as it would amount to violating their right to privacy.
A bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan held there can’t be conditions that enable the police to constantly track the movements of the accused and virtually peep into his privacy.
Setting aside the bail condition that required the accused to share their Google Maps location with the police, the court in its judgment said, “Two things we have said. There cannot be a bail condition defeating the purpose of bail. We have said Google PIN cannot be a condition. Police cannot peep into the accused’s private life for bail.”
It also said no court can impose bail conditions that frustrate the purpose of granting bail itself.
The order of the top court came while examining whether a bail condition requiring an accused to share Google Maps location to the investigating officer to access his location violates a person’s right to privacy.
The top court judgement came on an appeal against certain conditions imposed by the Delhi High Court in 2022 in its order granting interim bail to a Nigerian national, Frank Vitus, who was an accused in a drugs case.
The high court had ordered the accused Frank Vitus and a co-accused to drop a pin on Google Maps to ensure that their location was available to the investigating officer of the case.
The accused were also asked by the high court to get an assurance from the High Commission of Nigeria that they would not leave India and would appear before the trial court.
To this, the top court said that there cannot be bail conditions that defeat the purpose of granting bail.