Supreme Court says courts can’t ask accused to share Google Maps location as bail condition

New Delhi [India], July 8 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that courts cannot ask accused to share their Google Maps location, to enable tracking their movements, as a condition to grant bail stating that doing so would amount to a violation of privacy rights.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan held that there can’t be conditions that enable the police to constantly track the movements of the accused and virtually peep into the privacy.

It also held that no court can impose bail conditions that frustrate the purpose of granting bail itself.

The top court passed the order while examining whether a bail condition requiring an accused to share Google Maps location with the investigating officer to access his location is violative of a person’s right to privacy.

The apex court set aside the bail condition that required the accused to share their Google Maps location with the police.

“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,” said the bench in its verdict passed today.

The detailed judgment will be out later in the day.

The order was passed 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 accused in a drug case.

The High Court had ordered the accused man 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 Delhi 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 apex court said that there cannot be bail conditions that defeat the purpose of granting bail.