Delhi Court Directs Downloading Aarogya Setu App And Continuously Switched On GPS and Bluetooth As A Mandatory Condition for Bail [Read Order]

Additional Sessions Judge Naveen Kumar Kashyap, while granting interim bail for under different sections of the IPC, ordered the released prisoners to keep their GPS as well as the Bluetooth on at all times.

While putting the downloding of the Arogya Setu app as an unusual mandatory condition, the court did not mention any reason for doing the same This condition becomes unusual as the bail orders reflect nothing on a reasonable nexus between this condition and the possibility of the accused fleeing or not cooperating with the investigation.

The orders also do not contain any information which would suggest that these prisoners were exposed to either the infection or the infected persons, and hence, the strict observation of their data collected on the Arogya Setu app would be required for the public health concerns.

High Courts across the country have issued notices to the Central Government on various issues concerning the mandatory use of the Aarogya Setu app.

On May 12, the Kerala High Court orally raised doubts about the practicality of the mandatory condition imposed on employers to make their employees download 'Aarogya Setu', the contact tracing app developed by the National Informatics Centre amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"There are valid concerns about the mandatory condition on the employers. Many have no smartphones. How do you propose to implement this?", asked a single bench of Justice P Gopinath.

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