On Monday (May 26), the Bombay High Court issued a stern rebuke to the Maharashtra government for the arrest and rustication of a 19-year-old engineering student over a social media post critical of Operation Sindoor. The student, Ms Shaikh, currently incarcerated in Yerwada Central Prison, was granted immediate relief by the court, which ordered her release and permitted her to appear for her ongoing university examinations.
The second-year student from Sinhgad Academy of Engineering in Pune—a private institution affiliated with Savitribai Phule Pune University—had filed a plea asserting that her expulsion was “arbitrary and unlawful.” The court, led by Justice Gauri Godse, did not mince words in condemning the state’s actions.
“What is this?” Justice Godse asked pointedly. “You are ruining the life of a student. What kind of conduct is this? Somebody expresses something, and you want to ruin her life? How can you rusticate her without even seeking an explanation?”
Appearing on the student’s behalf, advocate Farhana Shah urgently sought relief, emphasizing that the student’s liberty had been curtailed while her semester examinations were underway. The college’s counsel, in response, suggested she be permitted to write exams under police escort. The court sharply dismissed the idea, stating, “She is not a criminal.”
Using powerful words reflecting on the “purpose of education”, Justice Godse remarked, “What is the role of an educational institution? Is it merely to provide academic instruction, or to reform and guide young minds? Do you want to create a student or a criminal?”
The court unequivocally directed the state to facilitate the student’s release, insisting that she be allowed to appear for her remaining examinations without intimidation or surveillance. “She cannot be stopped from appearing in exams,” the judge said. “She cannot be asked to appear with police around her.”
The court also permitted the matter to be converted into a criminal writ or for a fresh petition to be filed as needed.
The case traces back to May 7, when the student reposted a social media post critical of the Indian government’s stance during its confrontation with Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack. She maintained in her plea that the post was deleted within two hours. Despite this, she faced a torrent of online threats and was arrested two days later on May 9.
In her Instagram story, the student had reshared content that echoed blatant pro-Pakistan propaganda, describing the Indian government as “fascist” for its calibrated airstrikes targeting terror camps across the border in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. The post went further, dismissing India’s right to self-defence as mere “vehement scapegoating,” accusing the government of using cross-border terrorism as a pretext to mask its so-called failures in what the post provocatively termed “Occupied Kashmir”—a terminology that directly challenges India’s sovereignty over Jammu and Kashmir.
In another story she shared, the divisive Two-Nation Theory was explicitly praised, while India’s pursuit of justice for the victims of the Pahalgam massacre was maligned as state-sponsored vengeance by “Hindutva regime” against “innocent” citizens. Apparently, the “innocent” citizens being referred to were Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad terrorists killed in India’s retaliatory strikes under Operation Sindoor on terror camps.
