The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain the bail plea of a man who was arrested in Gujarat for posting allegedly objectionable comments on Twitter against Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aaditya.

A bench of Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and Justices A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian asked the counsel for Sameer Thakkar to approach Bombay High Court.

“The high court can also uphold your fundamental rights. It can also transfer the case and grant you bail. Then why are you coming under 32 (under Article 32 of the Constitution, writ pleas are filed in the Supreme Court)? You please go to the high court,” the bench told senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani who was appearing for Thakkar.
Jethmalani said Thakkar had been arrested for “bailable offences” and this will “shock your Lordships”.

“We are quite immune from shock. We see it every day. Nothing shocks us,” the bench observed.

The counsel for Maharashtra said the state would not oppose the bail plea of the accused in the magisterial court on Monday as the custodial interrogation of Thakkar was over in the case.

Jethmalani said as many as three FIRs had been lodged against Thakkar for his tweets and he was arrested on October 24 from Rajkot. He was taken to Nagpur on transit remand and was quizzed in police custody.

“His neck was tied with rope and he was paraded on roads,” the senior lawyer said.

The bench responded: “What makes you think that we are approving all this. We are only telling you repeatedly that you can make these arguments before the high court. Let us have the view of high court.”

Jethmalani then withdrew the plea of Thakkar, who besides seeking bail, had sought consolidation of three FIRs registered against him for the posts.

Thakkar has 59,000 followers on Twitter and is followed by some prominent government functionaries on the social media platform.

He has been granted bail in one case by a Nagapur court and was arrested by Maharashtra police in connection with another FIR.