The Supreme Court on Monday held that bail conditions requiring an accused to share their Google Maps pin with the investigating officer for tracking of movement cannot be imposed, Bar and Bench reported.
The pin is a symbol that marks locations in the Google Maps application.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said that a condition for bail should not defeat the purpose of bail.
“There cannot be a bail condition enabling the police to constantly track the movement of the accused and virtually peep into the private life of the accused,” said Oka, reported Live Law.
The order came on an appeal filed by a Nigerian national, Frank Vitus, who is an accused in a drugs case.
In 2022, the Delhi High Court ordered the accused and a co-accused to share their Google Maps pin with the investigating officer so that their location could be tracked.
The accused were also directed by the High Court to obtain a certificate from the Nigerian High Commission, confirming that they would not leave India and appear before the trial court.
On Monday, the Supreme Court set aside both the conditions.
While hearing the matter in February, the top court had asked Google India to explain how the Google Maps pin feature works in the context of the bail condition, according to Bar and Bench.
On April 29, the court said that such conditions infringe the person’s right to privacy guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
In October, the Supreme Court had taken strong objection to similar bail conditions imposed on an accused in a money-laundering case.
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