Setting aside the detention of whistleblower-turned-popular YouTuber ‘Savukku’ Shankar alias A Shankar under the Goondas Act, the Madras High Court ordered his release on Friday.

“Media persons and YouTubers cannot be strangled, and if done so, it may pull the society back into the colonial era,” a Division Bench of Justices SM Subramaniam and V Sivagnanam said while quashing the detention order, passed by the Chennai City Police Commissioner on May 12. The judges passed orders on a Habeas Corpus Petition (HCP) filed by the YouTuber’s mother, A Kamala, challenging the legality on several grounds.

Shankar is facing multiple cases filed against him following his arrest on May 4 by the Coimbatore Police on the charge of making derogatory comments against women police personnel in an interview. Although he had been granted bail by the Supreme Court as well in the preventive detentioncase, his release remains uncertain despite the High Court order setting him at liberty.

The Bench came down heavily on the use of preventive detention, observing, ‘Prosecuting the accused, holding trial, and getting him convicted should be the focus rather than invoking a draconian law of the colonial era. The HCP came up before this bench after a split verdict by an earlier Bench, comprising Justice GR Swaminathan and Justice PB Balaji. While Justice Swaminathan had set aside the detention order, the latter had maintained that the state had to be granted an opportunity to file its counter.

While reserving orders on the HCP on Tuesday, the Bench questioned the need for invoking preventive detention with Justice Subramaniam observing that in order to prevent criticism the state must keep its house in order. People in power should develop tolerance and not react to every other comment made against them on social media or mainstream media. “Will you go after every one of them or be selective?” he had asked. He also appreciated Justice Swaminathan, who had convicted Shankar for six months in a contempt of court case in 2022, for quashing the detention under the Goondas Act.

After his arrest on May 4, Shankar alleged severe at the Coimbatore prison, causing a furore. Later, he sought a transfer to the Chennai prison.