Bombay High Court today orally expressed its “shock” at the Maharashtra Police for arresting a 19-year-old engineering student who reshared a critical social media post on Indian Army’s Operation Sindoor.
The Bombay High Court today orally expressed its “shock” at the Maharashtra Police for arresting a 19-year-old engineering student who reshared a critical social media post on Indian Army’s Operation Sindoor.
A division bench of Justices Gauri Godse and Somasekhar Sundaresan had in the morning session criticised the State and the college authorities for treating her like a “criminal”, instead of making an endaevour to reform her.
The 19-year-old is presently lodged in Pune’s Yerwada Central prison. She has been booked under Sections 152, 196, 197, 299, 352 and 353 of Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, 2023.
The Court had decided to consider the girl’s release today itself and made it clear that it will not at all accept any excuses later if the authorities fail to release her today before sunset.
When the matter was taken up in the evening, the bench enquired about the status of investigation.
As the Assistant Public Prosecutor informed the bench that the probe is ongoing and the Police is in the process of examining her mobile and laptop, Justice Godse orally remarked,
“This is absolutely shocking. It appears like police officers are bent upon ruining her life. Equally the college.”
Significant to note that the girl was rusticated from her college ahead of her exams. During the hearing, the Court enquired about the girl’s mental and emotional status and directed her release from the jail to enable her to appear in the exams. It also ordered the Police authorities to provide full security and safety to her. “We do not want any public assault etc…Give her a separate classroom for writing exams, if you can,” the Court told the College.
“As far as the two missed papers are concerned, we will grant you to make applications to the University to let her give the same. Also, we will need an assurance from your client that she will not engage in such activities on social media in future and use social media responsibly,” the Court told Advocate Farhana Shah appearing for the girl.
On the argument of the college that ‘students need to follow some discipline’ the judges remarked, “Who is stopping you from this? First inculcate some discipline in the institute then discipline students. Practice what you preach.”
The allegation against the girl is that she has shared a post on her Instagram account which has caused tension between two groups and is likely to disturb the public peace and war between Bharat and Pakistan.
The Court however noted that she had shared the post on May 7 and had deleted the same immediately after two hours. Further, it observed that there is no dispute that she expressed remorse and apology.
“According to us, it is shocking that after she deleted the post an FIR was lodged against her on May 9 without even considering the fact that she deleted the post and even apologised,” the Court observed in its order.
The judges further, added, “Considering the allegations against her and her immediate act of apologising, in our opinion her act of sharing the post can be at the most termed as indiscretion by a young student, who is still taking education.”
It further ordered her to co-operate with the probe and attend the police as and when called. “However, during the exams period, she shall not be called by the police,” the Court ordered.
As far as the student’s rustication is concerned, the bench opined that the college passed the rustication order in a hurry. “We are of the opinion that the said order is hurriedly issued without giving an opportunity to the petitioner to respond to such action. It completely ignores her act of deleting the post and expressing remorse. Hence prima facie we find the order of rustication is required to be suspended,” the bench said in the order.
Background:
The student from Pune’s Sinhgad Academy of Engineering—an unaided private college affiliated with Savitribai Phule Pune University, was arrested on May 9, over a controversial Instagram repost related to Indo-Pak tensions following Operation Sindoor. She has challenged her ‘rustication’ from the institute for her allegedly objectionable posts arguing that the said action was “arbitrary and unlawful.”
In her plea filed through Advocate Farhana Shah, the student has alleged that the institute did not serve any show-cause notice to her before issuing the rustication order. The student presently is pursuing her Information Technology course and is in the second year. She is lodged the Yerwada jail in Pune.
The action, the plea contends violates the right to equality (Article 14), right to free speech (Article 19(1)(a)) and right to life (Article 21) provided in the Constitution of India.
According to the petitioner, she had reposted a post from the Instagram handle ‘Reformistan’ on May 7, which was very critical about the the Indian government’s role in escalating tensions with Pakistan. She, however, deleted the said post within two hours and later issued a public apology following the death threats that she received.
Even as the petitioner apologised for her post, she was arrested on May 7 itself after protests broke out in the institute. She was arrested by the Kondhwa Police Station in Pune. She was rusticated by the college on May 6 citing her social media posts, which the institute claimed brought ‘disrepute’ and indicated that she harboured “anti-national sentiments”, posing a “risk to the campus community and society.”
