SRINAGAR: The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that there cannot be a bail provision that allows the police to constantly watch the accused’s whereabouts and essentially intrude into their private life.
A bench comprising Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan was debating whether a bail condition requiring an accused to drop a pin on Google Maps so that the investigating officer could track his whereabouts violated a person’s right to privacy.
The Court lifted the bail requirement requiring the accused to reveal the Google Maps PIN on his mobile device with the investigating officer, Live Law reported.
“There can’t be bail condition defeating the very objective of bail. There can’t 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,” Justice Oka verbally pronounced the verdict.
The court also relaxed a bail condition that required the foreign accused to obtain an assurance from his Embassy that they would not leave India. The bench said that there cannot be bail conditions that defeat the purpose of granting bail.While hearing the matter, the Supreme Court had asked Google India to explain the functioning of Google PIN in the context of bail conditions requiring the accused to share their live mobile location.
