The Supreme Court on July 8 held that requiring an accused to share his or her Google location PIN with the investigating officer to facilitate tracking of movement is a violation of the right to privacy.
A Bench of Justices A.S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said a condition for bail should not defeat the very purpose of grant of bail.
“There cannot be a bail condition defeating the purpose of bail. We have said Google PIN cannot be a condition. The police cannot peep into the private life of an accused on bail,” the apex court observed during the pronouncement of judgment.
The verdict came in an appeal filed by a Nigerian national, Frank Vitus, who is an accused in a drugs case, challenging a Delhi High Court order of 2022, mandating him to share his Google Map location with the probe officer as a condition for his bail.
The apex court had earlier asked Google for its assistance to understand the technology better and test it on the threshold of fundamental rights.
In October 2023, Justice Oka’s Bench had dealt with a similar question of law in a separate case which involved allegations of money-laundering. In that, the Delhi High Court, again, had granted bail to Raman Bhuraria, an auditor.
One of the bail conditions was for Bhuraria to “drop a Google pin location from his mobile phone to the Investigating Officer concerned, which shall be kept operational throughout his bail.”
He had been arrested in connection with a money-laundering probe arising from an alleged ₹3,269 crore financial irregularity case against Shakti Bhog Foods Limited.
