Condition of bail: location sharing of the accused: SC orders Google to provide an explanation of how their PIN location-sharing functions

On Monday, the Supreme Court gave Google instructions to clarify and provide the court with an understanding of how its PIN location-sharing tool on its Map works.

The Supreme Court requested that Google notify it, which it did. The court said that it will later investigate whether requiring an accused person to reveal his whereabouts as a condition of bail would violate his right to privacy when he is forced to divulge such information.

Leading the two-judge panel of the top court, Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, made this statement during the Prosecution’s appeal against the Delhi High Court’s order granting bail to the accused, a Nigerian national, in a case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

“We need to examine whether if an accused (on the orders of the court) has to provide the investigators with his detailed information about their whereabouts, then will it likely to infringe on the individual’s right to privacy or not,” the judge said.

In a previous judgment on February 23, the Supreme Court had requested that Google India provide a thorough affidavit outlining the technical requirements for removing a PIN when doing so is a condition of granting bail to an accused individual.

It is important to remember that a nine-judge panel of the Supreme Court’s Constitution bench unanimously ruled earlier in 2017 in a historic decision that the right to privacy was guaranteed by the Constitution.

The Apex Court had previously asked Google India for a thorough affidavit, requesting information about its technical features after the Union government had neglected to adequately inform and clarify the functioning of the Google Maps PIN.

The Apex Court had previously said and recorded, “The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) has given an affidavit and has suggested that as far as working of the Google PIN is concerned, it’s appropriate if the information is sought from Google India Pvt Ltd.”

In its ruling, the Supreme Court made it clear that we are just sending Google India a notice in order to get information on how the Google PIN works, not to plead them as a party or respondent in the action.

However, the highest court noted at one of its sessions that the need to provide Google PINs may prima facie violate the accused’s constitutionally protected right to privacy.

The Supreme Court has previously noted that it may not be appropriate to track down an accused person if they have been granted a higher bail amount and the terms imposed by the court, since this might violate their right to privacy.