Sharing Google PIN with authorities cannot be a condition for granting bail to an accused: Supreme Court

Today (July 08, 2024), the Supreme Court (SC) of India ruled that a court cannot impose a condition on an accused person seeking bail to share his Google PIN location with the authorities for continuous monitoring. The bench constituting Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan said, “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.” Today, the top court bench was hearing the matter regarding a bail condition that requires an accused to share a Google PIN location with the investigating officer and examine whether the same violates a person’s right to privacy. After hearing the matter early in the morning, the SC bench set aside the bail condition stating that there cannot be a bail condition defeating the purpose of granting bail. Earlier, the bench had directed Google India to explain how their Google PIN location-sharing feature on Google Maps works. The SC bench reserved the verdict on this matter on April 29 and said that such a condition violates the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.