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Zubair gets bail in all cases filed against him
The bench also disbands a UP police Special Investigation Team formed by state government to investigate FIRs against fact-checker
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail to Alt News Co-founder Mohammad Zubair in all the FIRs lodged in Uttar Pradesh against him concerning his alleged derogatory tweets saying it finds no reason or justification for the deprivation of his liberty to persist any further.
The top court said that it is a settled principle of law, that "the existence of the power of arrest must be distinguished from the exercise of arrest and the exercise of the power of arrest must be pursued sparingly."
A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant, and AS Bopanna said that fairness to Zubair would require that the entirety of the investigation into all the FIRs be clubbed together and should be handled by one and the same investigating authority.
It said "the overlap between the allegations in the FIRs, emanating as they do, from the tweets of the petitioner (Zubair) would only go to emphasise the need for a consolidated as opposed to a piecemeal investigation by a diverse set of law enforcement agencies."
It said essentially, the gravamen of allegations against the petitioner pertains to tweets that have been put out by him.
"Having found from the record that the petitioner has been subjected to a fairly sustained investigation by the Delhi police, we find no reason or justification for the deprivation of the liberty of the petitioner to persist any further. Consequently, we are of the view that the petitioner shall be released on interim bail in each of the FIRs which form the subject matter of these proceedings under Article 32 of the Constitution", it said.
The top court, which did not upload the detailed order on its website but the operating part only, said that it would take some time to transcribe the detailed judgement and directed that Zubair will be enlarged on interim bail in all the FIRs lodged in UP after depositing a bail bond of Rs 20,000 with Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Patiala House Court, New Delhi.
The bench directed that the SIT which has been constituted by the UP police shall be rendered "redundant and shall be disbanded".
It said that while the court is inclined to direct the transfer of investigation of the FIRs which have been registered in Uttar Pradesh to the special cell of Delhi Police, "we reserve liberty to the petitioner to take recourse to the remedy under section 482 of CrPC in the event he is advised to seek the quashing of FIR before the Delhi High Court. All proceedings in connections with the FIRs shall lie before the Delhi High Court for such remedies as are available under the law".
It said the directions for the transfer of investigations of the FIRs which have been registered in Uttar Pradesh to the special cell of Delhi Police shall apply to all the existing FIRs forming the subject matter of the tweets as noted earlier and to any future FIR to be registered against him under the same subject matter.
