Bail conditions can’t invade privacy of kin of accused: Delhi HC

New Delhi: Underlining the right to a person’s privacy, Delhi High Court has said that bail conditions can’t be imposed on the kin of an accused or convict.In a recent order, the high court has set aside certain bail conditions that warranted the police to carry out surveillance of an accused person’s wife and also monitor her call detail records.It termed the conditions imposed by the trial court as an unjustified invasion of privacy and extended the interim bail for a limited period to enable the accused petitioner to attend to his wife’s surgery.“The law only empowers the court to impose appropriate conditions on the undertrial or convict to whom bail or suspension of sentence is being granted; while doing so, the court cannot impose conditions on the family members of the accused or convict,” Justice Anup J Bhambhani observed in the order.Seeking modification of the bail conditions imposed, the accused had argued that the conditions are an unacceptable invasion of the privacy of his wife, who has no concern with the FIR in question.The prosecution submitted that the accused had availed interim bail earlier too on the same ground but the surgery was not conducted.However, the public prosecutor conceded that the conditions regarding the accused’s wife “may not be appropriate since they amount to unwarranted surveillance and invasion of the privacy of the petitioner’s wife”.

The trial court, in its interim order, had directed the police to file a report on the family members of the accused’s wife who had visited her, and ordered that a woman police officer be deputed to stay with her.It had further sought a report on the circumstances in the accused’s wife’s house by clicking photographs of her and noting down statements from three neighbours regarding her lifestyle. It also ordered the concerned investigating officer to collect the call detail records of the accused’s wife, along with a report on the persons they had contacted.