New Delhi: Editorials in English newspapers treated with caution the news of Alt News co-founder and journalist Mohammed Zubair’s release after a significant Supreme Court order, with most calling for a similar precedent to be set.The Supreme Court on July 20 directed all the FIRs against him to be clubbed and said that the power of arrest must be used sparingly.Indian Express called the intervention “hopeful” and highlighted that it came at a time when FIRs were being registered at the slightest possibility of a party having been “hurt” and when arrests have become the norm.“The court has drawn some red lines that should henceforth force authorities to think before acting against individuals on the flimsiest of reasons for assumed hurt to sentiment, reputation and fame of individuals/organisations/faith or “national interest”,” the editorial said.Citing the Vinod Dua and Kedarnath Singh judgments, the paper said that the challenge before it now is to ensure that “its words are followed, in letter and spirit, by those who have the power to throw a citizen into jail.”The editorial minces no words to note that the Indian Penal Code is being weaponised to “curb voices critical of persons in power,” including journalists, writers, filmmakers and activists.“State overreach has become epidemic with over-sensitive agencies penalising dissenters, presumably to please their political bosses — the detention of filmmaker Avinash Das, for sharing a 2017 photograph of Union Home Minister Amit Shah with a tainted IAS officer is the most recent example.”By ordering Zubair’s release, the paper feels, the apex court of the country has “fortified the practice of free speech.”Times of India – which is owned by the same house under which the Times Now channel, which hosted a debate in which a BJP leader made anti-Islam comments which were highlighted by Zubair – struck a chord similar to Express.“This has been repeated umpteen times by SC, but to little effect,” TOI says, on the Supreme Court’s direction to use the power of arrest sparingly.The editorial goes into the injustice of pre-trial arrests, long trials, long periods of custody and the filing of multiple FIRs, noting how Zubair had to bear the brunt of these.“Ideally, SC’s position on this issue should be the default position of all courts. But magistrate courts don’t seem to get the message. As SC said earlier, India needs a bail law that codifies these practices, and removes judicial discretion,” it says.The editorial then goes on to say that Nupur Sharma, who has multiple FIRs against her over her anti-Islam remarks, “similarly also deserves protection from multiple FIRs.” Several on social media have pointed out the dissimilarities of the two cases, chief among them the fact that one involves hate speech and the other is a journalist reporting on it.SC’s other observations in this case are also crucial, TOI says, highlighting the court’s refusal to stop Zubair from tweeting.“This may seem reiteration of a basic understanding of rights and responsibilities but given police and lower court actions – in states governed by political parties across the spectrum – it is heartening that SC made things clear,” it says.The Hindu, in an editorial pre-dating Zubair’s release, wrote of the police’s habit of arresting first and then “fishing for a possible offence.”“While the Supreme Court, in Satender Kumar Antil vs CBI, has sought to expand the scope for the grant of early bail to those arrested without sufficient cause, the CJI, N.V. Ramana, has bemoaned the injury to personal liberty caused by hasty arrests, hurdles in the way of releasing suspects on bail and the prolonged incarceration of those under trial,” the editorial notes, going on to criticise the culture of authorising remand.The editorial also spoke of the disparities in granting bail.“It is indeed true that despite the basics of bail law being quite known, especially that bail is the rule, and its denial the exception, there are glaring inconsistencies over who gets bail, who is denied it and at what stage it is given,” it says.