In Mohammed Zubair v. State of NCT of Delhi and others, the Supreme Court recently stated some crucial directives to the police agencies against the use of the power of arrest as a "punitive tool".
Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna granted Zubair bail in all 6 FIRs that the Uttar Pradesh police had filed in various areas as a result of his tweets and combined those cases with the Delhi FIR. The whole ruling was uploaded after the Court only made the operative portion of the order available on July 20 to allow the petitioner's immediate release.
"As evident from the facts narrated above, the machinery of criminal justice has been relentlessly employed against the petitioner. Despite the fact that the same tweets allegedly gave rise to similar offences in the diverse FIRs mentioned above, the petitioner was subjected to multiple investigations across the country. Consequently, he would be required to hire multiple advocates across districts, file multiple applications for bail, travel to multiple districts spanning two states for the purposes of investigation, and defend himself before multiple courts, all with respect to substantially the same alleged cause of action. Resultantly, he is trapped in a vicious cycle of the criminal process where the process has itself become the punishment. It also appears that certain dormant FIRs from 2021 were activated as certain new FIRs were registered, thereby compounding the difficulties faced by the petitioner".
The court also opined that a police officer must ensure that the conditions laid down in Section 41 are met in order to fulfill the conditions of arrest and opined on the conditions laid down in the case of Arnesh Kumar vs State of Bihar. The court stated that "Arrest is not meant to be and must not be used as a punitive tool because it results in one of the gravest possible consequences emanating from criminal law: the loss of personal liberty. Individuals must not be punished solely on the basis of allegations, and without a fair trial. When the power to arrest is exercised without application of mind and without due regard to the law, it amounts to an abuse of power. The criminal law and its processes ought not to be instrumentalized as a tool of harassment. Section 41 of the CrPC as well as the safeguards in criminal law exist in recognition of the reality that any criminal proceeding almost inevitably involves the might of the state, with unlimited resources at its disposal, against a lone individual".
By awarding Zubair bail in each of the UP Police charges and grouping them with the Delhi Police FIR, the Court dismissed his writ petition and freed him to approach the Delhi High Court to have the proceedings dismissed.
The Court declared that its directives would be followed in any further cases that might be filed as a result of his tweets.