Twenty-four days after his arrest, Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair walked free from Tihar jail on Wednesday night, within hours of the Supreme Court granting him interim bail in all FIRs lodged in Uttar Pradesh against him for allegedly hurting religious sentiments, saying "exercise of the power of arrest must be pursued sparingly".

The court said it finds "no reason or justification for the deprivation of his liberty to persist any further", ordered the disbanding of the SIT constituted by the Uttar Pradesh police and directed the transfer of all UP cases to Delhi. A bench of justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and AS Bopanna also refused to restrain Zubair from tweeting in the future as sought by the UP government, saying can a lawyer be restrained from arguing. "How can a journalist be restrained from tweeting and writing? If he violates any law by tweeting or for that matter any citizen speaking in public or private, then he can be proceeded as per the law", the bench said in a lengthy order passed after more than two-hour hearing. "It is a settled principle of law, that the existence of the power of arrest must be distinguished from the exercise of arrest and the exercise of the power of arrest must be pursued sparingly," it said.