SC to consider Tamil Nadu's response on plea against fresh detention of YouTuber journalist on August 27

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to consider on August 27 a response from the Tamil Nadu goverment to a plea challenging the validity of a fresh order on preventive detention of YouTuber journalist A Shankar alias Savukku Shankar passed on August 12, just three days after the Madras High Court quashed a previous order issued under the Goondas Act.

A bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra has issued notice to the DMK government on August 22 and fixed the matter for consideration on August 27.

Advocate Balaji Srinivasan appeared for A Kamala, mother of Shankar, who was detained in Madurai jail allegedly without access of a lawyer.

The plea, filed through advocates K Gowtham Kumar and Harsha Tripathi, also claimed that 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.

"As of date, the detenu has been released in all of the cases filed against him and is only in custody due to the second detention order passed," it stated.

The plea also claimed that the detenu is an investigative journalist who fearlessly exposed the illegal and corrupt activities of the ruling party in the State Government.

"The detenu is a strong voice of dissent in the state while exposing all the illegal acts of the government. He voices his opinions not only about the present government in power but also the previous government, when they did acts that were illegal in his opinion," it claimed.

One notable exposé by the petitioner was the “cash for jobs” scam that led to the arrest of a powerful minister of the ruling party (Senthil Balaji) who was also forced to resign from his post. Resultantly, several ministers and politicians of the ruling party have filed defamation cases against the petitioner, his plea claimed.

On August 14, the Supreme Court had granted protection to Shankar from any coercive actions in the 16 FIRs lodged against him by the Tamil Nadu police.

The court had then agreed to examine his plea against the fresh detention order passed against him under the Goondas Act.