Recently, the Supreme Court made a noteworthy decision, granting bail to an individual who was facing charges under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. However, this release came with a unique condition: the accused was required to continuously share his location via his mobile phone by connecting it with the mobile phone of the investigating officer at all times.
Remarkably, this order was issued even as another bench of the Supreme Court is yet to deliberate on the question of whether the imposition of a bail condition, which involves sharing one's real-time location with the investigating officer, might infringe upon an individual's right to privacy.
A bench comprising Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Bela M Trivedi issued the recent bail order in a case involving the alleged recovery of 35 kgs of poppy straw from an individual. The Court decided to grant him bail, taking into account the fact that he had already spent more than seven months in custody and that the chargesheet had already been filed. The Court also observed that, since the confiscated contraband item weighed less than the prescribed commercial quantity of 50 kgs for poppy straw, the restrictions on granting bail as stipulated under Section 37 of the NDPS Act would not be applicable in this case.
Earlier, a bench composed of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Pankaj Mithal had made oral remarks indicating that imposing a bail condition which mandates an accused to continuously share his Google pin location from his mobile phone with the Investigation Officer throughout the duration of his bail appeared, prima facie, to be in violation of the individual's right to privacy.
The said bench is considering the question on sharing of live location as a bail condition, in the Enforcement Directorate’s challenge against a Delhi High Court order that had granted bail to the internal auditor of Shakti Bhog Foods Limited (SBFL) in a money laundering case involving bank loan fraud of several crores.
Case Title: PURANMAL JAT V. STATE OF RAJASTHAN
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