New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the State of Tamil Nadu to apprise it on September 02, as to whether 16 FIRs filed against YouTuber Savukku Shankar, a vocal critic of DMK government, can be clubbed together.
The court, however, clarified it cannot club the FIRs if the incidents are separate and "distinct".
A bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra also asked the State to submit a short note regarding the latest detention order of Shankar passed on August 12, just three days after his previous detention order was quashed by the Madras High Court.
The court fixed the matter for hearing on Monday, September 2.
The court asked the Tamil Nadu government led by senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Sidharth Luthra to inform it on September 2, the reasons behind Shankar's latest detention just after being granted bail in connection with several criminal cases.
The court also asked advocate Balaji Srinivasan, appearing for Shankar as to why the writ petition filed against the latest detention order cannot be heard by the High Court.
Srinivasan said it would take five to six months for the High Court to consider the matter by then, it would become infructuous.
He said 80 to 100 such cases disposed of every years just because they become infructuous.
He also said as per the latest data, 51 % of prevention detention cases in the country were reported from Tamil Nadu alone, as there was a rampant misuse of the law.
The plea filed by A Kamala, mother of Shankar through advocates K Gowtham Kumar and Harsha Tripathi claimed the detenu is a victim of a witch-hunt by the State which is motivated by its own vendetta to harass him and keep him incarcerated, even more so now that he has been granted bail in almost all cases, and the first detention order passed against him under the Goondas Act has been quashed.
