CASE by case, the Supreme Court has expanded the ambit of free speech. Its interim bail order Wednesday is a disturbing course-reversal. It is tempting, with due respect, to see it as a one-off. What else could explain setting up a Special Investigation Team to “holistically understand the complexity of the phraseology employed and for proper appreciation of some of the expressions used” in two online posts by academic Ali Khan Mahmudabad on Operation Sindoor? This, even as it held forth on rights and duties and ordered a gag on Mahmudabad. SITs are constituted in special circumstances, in cases that involve a network of individuals or crimes, or when existing investigating agencies are deemed inadequate. At the centre of this case are words that are neither hidden nor coded, and an FIR, rather two, had already been registered by the Haryana Police. Any........

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