Apex Court Grants Bail To Alt-News Co-Founder Zubair

Supreme Court bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud granted bail to Mohd. Zubair in all FIRs registered against him. The co-founder of Alt-News, who had been incarcerated in Uttar Pradesh, was represented by Advocate Vrinda Grover. 

Grover had mentioned the petition before Chief Justice Ramana on Tuesday morning, after which the matter was listed before Justice Chandrachud today.

The Court also clubbed all the FIRs lodged against Zubair and directed that the matter be investigated by one agency. 

The Bench observed that the power to make arrests must be invoked sparingly. The Court further noted that there was no justification to keep him in continued custody any further and subject him to multiple proceedings when the factum of allegations against him which is a tweet is already under investigation by the Delhi Police. Consequently, the Bench observed, the SIT constituted by Uttar Pradesh police stood disbanded and redundant.

The Court transferred all the pending FIRs to the jurisdiction of Delhi courts. The Court accorded liberty to the accused to approach the Delhi High Court for quashing of FIRs.