The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the release of NewsClick founder-editor Prabir Purkayastha, citing his arrest under the stringent anti-terror law UAPA as “vitiated” and “invalid in the eyes of law” more than seven months after the crackdown on the news portal.

The apex court said the grounds of Purkayastha's arrest were not conveyed to him or his lawyer, which violated his fundamental right guaranteed under Article 22.

A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Sandeep Mehta also described as “clandestine” Delhi police's move to produce Purkayastha before the additional sessions judge without informing his lawyer. The court expressed regret that a copy of the FIR was given to Purkayastha's lawyer only on October 4 last year — after the order for police remand had been passed — even though the FIR was registered on August 17.

“We have carefully perused the arrest memo and found that the same nowhere conveys the grounds on which the accused was being arrested. The arrest memo is simply a proforma indicating the formal ‘reasons’ for which the accused was being arrested,” Justice Mehta said.

“From the detailed analysis made above, there is no hesitation in the mind of the Court to reach a conclusion that the copy of the remand application in the purported exercise of communication of the grounds of arrest in writing was not provided to the accused-appellant or his counsel before passing of the order of remand dated 4th October, 2023, which vitiates the arrest and subsequent remand of the appellant,” he added.

As a result, the apex court said, the appellant should be released by applying the ratio of the judgment rendered in the Pankaj Bansal case.

“Accordingly, the arrest of the appellant followed by remand order dated 4th October, 2023, and so also the impugned order passed by the High Court of Delhi dated 13th October, 2023, are hereby declared to be invalid in the eyes of law and are quashed and set aside,” the Supreme Court said.

The apex court passed the judgment while allowing Purkayastha’s appeal challenging a high court order that refused to quash his arrest and subsequent remand.

The bench said the FIR for alleged terror-related offences were registered against Purkayastha on August 17, 2023. “The copy of the FIR was provided to Shri Arshdeep Khurana, learned advocate representing the accused for the first time on 5th October, 2023, and hence, till the time of being deprived of liberty, no communication had been made to the appellant regarding the grounds on which he had been arrested,” Justice Mehta said.

The top court noted that Purkayastha was arrested at 5.45pm on October 3 and was required to be produced before the magistrate concerned within 24 hours of his arrest. The investigating officer, therefore, had a clear window till 5.44pm on October 4 to produce the appellant before the magistrate and seek his police remand. Yet, the investigating agency produced Purkayastha before the remand judge at 6am on October 4 without intimating his lawyer, which was mandatory.

“Apparently, this entire exercise was done in a clandestine manner and was nothing but a blatant attempt to circumvent the due process of law; to confine the accused to police custody without informing him of the grounds on which he has been arrested; deprive the accused of the opportunity to avail the services of the legal practitioner of his choice so as to oppose the prayer for police custody remand, seek bail and also to mislead the court,” the Supreme Court said.

Welcoming the verdict, NewsClick said: “This is a good day for independent media.”

CPIML-Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya tweeted: “Supreme Court has declared Prabir Purkayastha’s arrest under UAPA illegal. Bhima-Koregaon, Delhi Riots and Newsclick — the Modi regime must be punished for these fabricated cases against India’s human rights campaigners, student activists and journalists.”