The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the release of Alt News co-founder Muhammad Zubair on interim bail in all six cases registered by the Uttar Pradesh police for his tweets, saying the power of arrest must be used sparingly.
The top court disbanded a Special Investigation Team formed by the Uttar Pradesh government to probe charges against Zubair and ordered transferring of the cases to the Delhi police Special Cell.
Acting on a writ petition by Zubair, a bench presided over by Justice D Y Chandrachud said there was no justification to keep him in continued custody when the allegations arose from tweets being investigated by the Delhi police.
The court said its order on transferring the cases registered by the UP police would also apply to all future FIRs that may lodged on the basis of his tweets. It also said the petitioner may approach the Delhi High Court for quashing of the FIRs.
The court also rejected a plea by the Additional Advocate General of Uttar Pradesh that the petitioner should be restrained from making any tweet in future.
"It is like telling a lawyer that you should not argue. How can we tell a journalist that he will not write," the bench asked.
To this, the state counsel said he is not a journalist.
"If there is any tweet against the law, he would be answerable. How can we pass anticipatory order that someone will not speak. We can't say he won't tweet again," the bench said.
On July 18, the top court had told the Uttar Pradesh police not to take any precipitative action against Zubair until Wednesday, describing the fact checker's bail-arrest ordeal as a "vicious cycle".
He faced six FIRs, two in Hathras, one each in Lakhimpur Kheri, Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad and Sitapur.
On July 12, the court had extended the interim bail granted to him in the case registered against him at Sitapur in connection with his tweet calling Hindu seers as "hatemongers".
After his arrest by Delhi police on June 27, Zubair had remained in judicial custody.
(Published 20 July 2022, 09:15 IST)
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