The Bombay High Court on Friday observed that the criminal case against a 19-year-old student for her social media post on Operation Sindoor cannot be quashed merely because she deleted the post and apologised for it.
A division bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad made the oral remarks while hearing the Pune-based collegian’s plea seeking quashing of the FIR lodged against her in May. The girl had reposted content on Instagram from an account called Reformistan, which criticised the Indian government for allegedly provoking war against Pakistan amid Operation Sindoor.
The bench stressed that simply being a “bright student” with good academic performance was not a sufficient ground to quash the FIR. The court was informed that the student had appeared for her examinations after securing bail and passed with flying colours.
“Just because she is a bright student cannot be a ground to quash the FIR,” the judges said. They further noted that the deletion of the post in fact “aggravates and complicates the case.”
The FIR was lodged after the student reposted the controversial content on May 7. Within two hours, following severe backlash and threats, she deleted the post and issued an apology. Despite this, she was arrested but later secured bail from the High Court.
Her lawyer argued that the student had no ill intention and had promptly removed the post. However, the court declined to accept this as a basis to terminate proceedings.
The bench directed Public Prosecutor Mankhuwar Deshmukh to place the case diary on record and posted the matter for further hearing after two weeks.
