Bombay HC Slams Maharashtra Govt For Arrest Of 19-Year-Old Pune Student Over Post On Indo-Pak Hostilities
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday strongly criticised the Maharashtra government for arresting a 19-year-old Pune student over a social media post related to Indo-Pak hostilities, calling the state’s action “radical” and “unwarranted.” The court said the student had been wrongfully criminalised for a mistake she had acknowledged and apologised for.
About The Case
A vacation bench of Justices Gauri Godse and Somasekhar Sundaresan directed the student’s advocate, Farhana Shah, to file a bail plea immediately, assuring that the court would grant bail the same day to ensure the student could appear for her semester exams.
“The girl has posted something and then realised her mistake and apologised. Instead of giving her a chance to reform, the state government has arrested her and turned her into a criminal,” the bench observed sharply.
The student, a second-year Information Technology student at Sinhgad Academy of Engineering, was arrested earlier this month for reposting an Instagram post by an account named ‘Reformistan,’ which criticised the Indian government in the context of the ongoing Operation Sindoor. She deleted the post within two hours and issued a public apology after receiving threats. Despite this, she was arrested by Kondhwa police on May 7 and is currently lodged in Pune’s Yerwada Prison after a local court denied her bail.
The HC took a stern view of both the government’s action and the college’s decision to rusticate her. “How can the state arrest a student like this? Does the state want students to stop expressing their opinions? Such a radical reaction from the state will further radicalise the person,” the court said.
The judges also criticised the college’s response. “Someone is expressing their opinion, and this is how you ruin her life? A student’s life has been ruined,” the court said, calling the rustication order arbitrary.
An official rustication letter issued by the Sinhgad Academy on May 9 accused the student of bringing “disrepute to the institution” and claimed she held “anti-national sentiments,” posing a threat to the campus and society. The student was escorted off the premises amid protests before her arrest.
The court, however, disagreed with both the college’s and the state’s assessment. “Instead of reforming her and making her understand, you have turned her into a criminal. You want the student to turn into a criminal?” the bench asked.
It also reminded the authorities of the reformative role educational institutions are expected to play. “The job of an educational institution is to not just impart academic education but also to help students reform,” the court said. “The girl is at an age where mistakes are bound to happen.”
Additional government pleader PP Kakade argued that the girl’s post was against national interest. But the court retorted, “National interest would not suffer because of a post uploaded by a student who has realised her mistake and apologised.”
The student’s petition challenges the rustication and demands reinstatement and permission to appear for semester exams that began on May 24. The plea describes the rustication as a “gross violation” of her fundamental rights and asserts that her repost was made “without ill intent.”
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