NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Tamil Nadu to apprise the top court by September 2, as to whether the FIRs pending against YouTuber Savukku Shankar can be clubbed. The court, however, said it cannot club the FIRs if the incidents are “separate and distinct”.
A three-judge Bench of the top court, led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra also asked the state to submit a short note regarding the latest detention order of Shankar. “We will hear it on September 2 (next hearing date),” the court said.
The court also asked the TN government to inform the reasons behind detaining Shankar just after being released “We have stopped all coercive action against him. We have granted protection from any coercive action in all 17 FIRs. File a complete chart of all FIRs as well,” the court said on Friday.
On August 23, the apex court issued notice to Tamil Nadu and sought its response after hearing a Habeus Corpus Petition challenging the second detentio. On August 14, in a major relief to Shankar, the SC had stayed all the coercive action against him in 17 FIRs.