Delhi High Court Says Google Location-Sharing Bail Condition Illegal and Violative of Privacy

The Delhi High Court has ruled that asking an accused person to share their live Google location as a bail condition is illegal and violates their right to privacy.

Justice Vikas Mahajan passed the order while hearing the case of Harinder Bashishta, Director of Vardhman Developers. A lower court had granted him bail but added a condition that he must share his real-time location with the investigating officer 24 hours a day using Google services.

During the proceedings, senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for the petitioner, argued that although bail had been granted by the Additional Sessions Judge on June 21, 2025, the direction mandating 24×7 Google-enabled tracking was excessive, intrusive, and unsupported by law.

The High Court agreed and relied on the Supreme Court’s judgment in Frank Vitus vs. NCB, where the top court had made it clear that technology-based tracking of an accused amounts to surveillance and is not permitted under Article 21, which protects the right to privacy.

The Supreme Court had also observed that bail cannot turn into “constant monitoring” and cannot feel like a form of custody outside jail. “The court cannot impose a condition on the accused to keep the police constantly informed about his movement from one place to another. The object of the bail condition cannot be to keep a constant vigil on the movements of the accused enlarged on bail,” the Supreme Court had held.

Justice Mahajan reiterated this principle, observing that such bail terms may effectively convert liberty granted by the court into a form of virtual confinement and undermine the presumption of innocence.

Calling the condition “unsustainable,” the Court held that bail terms must be reasonable, lawful and proportional neither punitive nor based on surveillance.

“In view of the law exposited by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Frank Vitus, this Court is of the view that the condition as noted above could not have been imposed,” the Court said.

With this finding, the High Court deleted the requirement of 24×7 location sharing via Google and disposed of the petition.

For Petitioner: Mr Vikas Pahwa, Sr. Adv. with Mr Prabhav Ralli, Ms Deeya Mittal, Mr. Dev Vrat Arya, Advs.

For Respondent: Mr Tarang Srivastava, APP for State. Mr. Kapil Sankhla, Mr. Akhilesh Aggarwal and Mr. Vipul Grover, Advs. complainants/Sanjib Kumar, Sunil Gupta, Shoaib Pervez.

Case Title: HARINDER BASHISHTA versus STATE NCT OF DELHI

Bench: Justice Vikas Mahajan

Order Date: 19 November 2025