Being 'Bright Student' No Grounds To Quash FIR: Bombay HC In Student's Plea Seeking Relief Over Allegedly Objectionable Post On Op Sindoor

The Bombay High Court on Friday orally remarked that it cannot quash an FIR lodged against a 19-year-old female engineering student for reposting an objectionable  'Operation Sindoor' post on social media, just because she has apologised, is a bright student or has passed her exams with "flying colours."

A division bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad heard her petition seeking to quash the FIR lodged against her by the Pune Police in May this year.

When the matter was called out, at the outset, Chief Justice Chandrashekhar, orally remarked, "This is a very serious thing... If at all you are a child studying this can only be considered for bail...but we cannot quash (the FIR)."

Advocate representing the student, informed the judges that his client has passed with flying colours in her and the same must be considered by the court.

"That's fine you are a bright child but that cannot be a ground to quash the FIR," the Chief Justice orally responded.

However, the counsel tried to submit that there is no mens rea on part of his client. But the court said that "mens rea is irrelevant."

Further the counsel submitted that his client has deleted the post too and the same too should be taken into account.

At this, CJ Chandrashekhar orally responded, "No no... It is the other way round... Deletion aggravates and complicates your decision (to delete)."

Subsequently, the bench adjourned the matter for final hearing after two weeks with a directive to Additional Public Prosecutor Mankunwar Deshmukh to submit case diary of the case in a sealed cover.

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 challenged the FIR and also the action taken by her educational institution rusticating her.

In May, this action was highly criticised by a vacation bench of Justices Gauri Godse and Somasekhar Sundaresan and had ordered the Pune Police to immediately release the girl and the college was asked to permit her to appear for her pending exams.

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."