The Delhi High Court has declared that mandating live location sharing as a condition for bail is illegal and violates an individual's right to privacy. Justice Vikas Mahajan made this ruling while presiding over the case of Harinder Bashishta, Director of Vardhman Developers. The High Court's decision overturned a lower court's order that required Bashishta to share his real-time location with the investigating officer 24/7 via Google services as a condition for bail.
Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, representing the petitioner, argued that the lower court's direction for continuous Google-enabled tracking was excessive, intrusive, and legally unsound. The Delhi High Court agreed with this argument. The court leaned on a Supreme Court judgment in Frank Vitus vs. NCB, which stated that using technology to track an accused person equates to surveillance and is not permitted under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which protects the right to privacy.
The Supreme Court had previously stated that bail should not become "constant monitoring" that feels like a form of custody outside of jail. Justice Mahajan echoed this sentiment, noting that such bail conditions could turn the granted liberty into a form of virtual confinement and undermine the presumption of innocence. The court deemed the condition "unsustainable," emphasizing that bail terms must be reasonable, lawful, proportional, and not punitive or surveillance-based.
The Supreme Court has made similar observations in the past. In a 2024 ruling, the Supreme Court stated that bail conditions enabling constant police tracking and intrusion into an accused's private life are impermissible. A bench comprising Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan deliberated on whether requiring an accused to share a Google Maps pin with an investigating officer violated the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution. The court clarified that while restricting an accused from entering a specific area to protect witnesses or victims is acceptable, continuously informing the police of their movements is not.
The Supreme Court has also sought Google India's input to understand the functioning of Google PIN in the context of bail conditions. The court acknowledged setting similar conditions in previous cases but clarified that the practice is not justifiable. The court has expressed concerns that such conditions could infringe on an individual's right to privacy and be misused.
The trend of using location sharing as a bail condition became common during the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020, the Delhi High Court granted bail to individuals on the condition that they share their location via Google Maps with the local police, citing the "unprecedented circumstances of a public health emergency". However, courts have continued to impose such conditions even after the pandemic subsided.
The Supreme Court's rulings and the recent Delhi High Court decision highlight the importance of balancing law enforcement's need to monitor accused individuals with the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Indian Constitution. While ensuring an accused person doesn't flee is important for a fair trial, monitoring cannot come at the cost of fundamental rights. The courts have emphasized the need for judicial discretion, privacy protections, and legal safeguards against unwarranted surveillance.
