Does directing accused persons to share their geo-location violate their right to privacy?

Tribune News Service

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, February 25

Does requiring accused persons to share their geo-location as a condition for grant of bail violate their right to privacy which was declared a fundamental right by the Supreme Court in 2017?

Faced with this question, the Supreme Court has issued notice to Google India directing it to explain how its PIN location-sharing feature on Google Maps works.

“The said company shall file an affidavit along with the necessary documents explaining the working of google PIN in the context of putting a condition in the order granting bail. The issue is whether such a condition infringes right to privacy,” a Bench led by Justice AS Oka said on Friday, while dealing with a bail plea of Nigerian national Frank Vitus.

“We make it clear that we are not impleading Google India Private Limited as a party respondent,” it said, posting the matter for further hearing in April.

Vitus—an accused in a drugs case—has challenged the Delhi High Court’s 2022 order requiring him to drop a PIN on Google Maps to ensure that their location was available to the Investigation Officer of the case as a condition for his release on interim bail. A similar condition was imposed on a co-accused.

The Delhi High Court had asked the accused to get an assurance from the High Commission of Nigeria in New Delhi that they would not leave India and would appear before the trial court.

However, the Supreme Court said, “Prima facie, we are of the view that such an onerous condition cannot be put as no Embassy will be in a position to give such assurance. Therefore, we direct that the petitioner shall be released on interim bail on the terms and conditions incorporated in the impugned order except for the condition regarding dropping a PIN on the google map and obtaining assurance from the High Commission of Nigeria.”

While ordering their release on interim bail, the top court also reduced the bail surety amount from Rs 2 lakh to RS 50,000.

In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court on August 24, 2017 declared the right to privacy a fundamental right under the Constitution, saying it was “the constitutional core of human dignity”.

“The right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and as a part of the freedoms guaranteed by Part III (which deals with Fundamental Rights) of the Constitution,” a nine-judge Constitution Bench headed by the then CJI JS Khehar had ruled in a unanimous verdict.

However, the Bench had clarified that like other fundamental rights, the right to privacy was not absolute and any encroachment will have to withstand the touchstone of permissible restrictions. A law to survive a challenge on the ground of violation of Article 21 must be fair, just and reasonable, it had noted.

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