SC agrees to urgent hearing to plea challenging Ashoka University prof’s arrest
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned the plea for urgent listing before Chief Justice of India Bhushan R Gavai, saying the professor has been proceeded against entirely for patriotic comments
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to an urgent hearing this week for Ashoka University associate professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad’s petition challenging his arrest over social media posts related to Operation Sindoor briefings.
Mahmudabad was arrested on Sunday after two cases involving stringent charges, including endangering national sovereignty and integrity, were registered against him in Sonepat over social media posts describing as “optics” Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, Wing Commander Vyomika Singh and foreign secretary Vikram Misri’s media briefings about strikes on terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir and subsequent four-day military hostilities.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared for Mahmudabad, mentioned the plea for urgent listing before Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R Gavai. “A professor at Ashoka University has been proceeded against entirely for patriotic comments. I want the matter to be listed urgently.”
CJI Gavai directed the listing of the matter either on Tuesday or Wednesday. The intervention comes amid outrage over the arrest.Mahmudabad’s colleagues, academics, political leaders, and parties condemned the arrest. His lawyer called the arrest “unlawful”.
Ashoka University maintained that it would cooperate with the police and local authorities in the probe. The faculty association of the university issued a statement strongly condemning the arrest on “groundless and untenable” charges. The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association expressed outrage at the “wholly unwarranted arrest” and demanded that the charges against him be dropped.
Mahmudabad maintained his remarks were “misunderstood”. He added that he had exercised his fundamental right to freedom of speech.
Mahmudabad was booked on the complaint from the Haryana State Commission for Women chairperson, Renu Bhatia, and a village head claiming to be associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s youth wing.
The Haryana Police registered two cases against Mahmudabad for allegedly endangering the sovereignty or unity and integrity of India, statements conducing to public mischief, deliberate actions aimed at insulting the modesty of a woman, and promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion.
The commission issued a notice to Mahmudabad on May 12, saying it had taken suo motu cognisance of his “public statements/remarks”. His remarks were annexed to the commission’s notice. In one of them, he said that right-wing people applauding Col Sofiya Qureshi should demand protection for victims of mob lynchings and “arbitrary” bulldozing of properties.
The commission said an initial review of Mahmudabad’s remarks has raised concerns about the “disparagement of women in uniform, including Col Qureshi and Wing Commander Singh, and undermining their role as professional officers in the Indian Armed Forces”.
Mahmudabad told the commission it had “misread” his comments. “...I am surprised that the Women’s Commission, while overreaching its jurisdiction, has misread and misunderstood my posts to such an extent that they have inverted their meaning,” Mahmudabad said on X.
