The Bombay High Court on Tuesday (October 27) quashed a First Information Report (FIR) lodged against a 20-year-old female engineering student for reposting a controversial post against the Indian Army's Operation Sindoor against Pakistan, Live Law reported. Single-judge Justice Milind Jadhav said, "Noting the fact that the petitioner is a young engineering student, I have allowed her plea." The student, from Pune's Sinhgad Academy of Engineering, was identified in the proceedings only by her initials, and Awaaz Punjab is not naming her.
Source: Live Law
LawChakra reported that Justice Milind N. Jadhav allowed Criminal Application No. 598 of 2025 to quash FIR No. 380 of 2025, registered on May 9, 2025 at Kondhwa Police Station in Pune under Sections 152, 196, 197, 299, 352 and 353 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. The Court held that the material did not disclose the intent that the offences invoked require, the report said.
Source: LawChakra
According to the petitioner's case reported by Live Law, she reposted a post from the Instagram handle 'Reformistan' on May 7, 2025 that was critical of the Indian government's role in escalating tensions with Pakistan, deleted the repost within two hours, and later issued a public apology. She was arrested after protests broke out at her institute, and she had also challenged her rustication from the college as arbitrary and unlawful, Live Law reported. In May 2025, a bench of Justice Gauri Godse and Justice Somasekhar Sundaresan had ordered the Pune Police to release her and the college to permit her to appear for her pending exams, the report said.
Source: Live Law
On the legal test, the Court held: "the mere possibility that a publication may cause displeasure or resentment cannot, by itself, constitute sufficient ground for criminal prosecution. This is so because the allegations must satisfy the essential ingredients of the penal provisions invoked," Law Trend reported, summarising the judgment. The distinction between content which may be objectionable and conduct which constitutes a criminal offence cannot be overlooked, the Court added, according to the report.
Source: Law Trend
LawChakra reported that the Court noted the student did not author or create the original post and took down the repost herself, not at the instance of investigators, and that no actual communal incident had been brought to its notice. It also observed that she had already undergone custody and deserved an opportunity to move forward, Law Trend reported.
Source: LawChakra