Sharing a Google pin location cannot be a condition for bail: Supreme Court

On April 29, 2024, the Supreme Court (SC) bench comprising Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan observed that sharing a Google pin location cannot be a condition for bail. It further said that asking the accused to share their Google pin location as part of the bail condition violated the right to privacy guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The SC said, “It cannot be a bail condition. We agree that there are two instances where this Court has done it, but it cannot be a condition for bail.” Earlier, the bench had directed Google India to explain how the feature of sharing pin location on Google Maps works to determine whether the same would violate their right to privacy. After hearing from Google today, the SC reserved an order concerning the sharing of Google pin location as a bail condition and listed the matter for hearing on July 26, 2024, for the rest of the issues.