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Supreme Court of India 2024-07-08 partly_allowed

Frank Vitus vs Narcotics Control Bureau & Ors

Bench: 2 — Abhay S. Oka, Ujjal Bhuyan

In Brief

A foreign national accused in a narcotics case challenged two bail conditions: (1) dropping a PIN on Google Maps to allow police monitoring, and (2) obtaining a certificate from his country's embassy confirming he would remain in India and appear in court. The Supreme Court held both conditions invalid. The Google Maps PIN condition violates the right to privacy under Article 21 as it enables surveillance. The embassy certificate condition is impossible to comply with since the embassy's decision lies beyond the accused's control; if the embassy fails to issue the certificate within seven days, the Court must delete this condition and substitute it with passport surrender and periodic reporting instead.

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Criminal Procedure Bail Conditions Right to Privacy Constitutional Rights Narcotic Drugs

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