Supreme Court Slams Ashoka University Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad Over 'Operation Sindoor' Post, Grants Interim Bail With Conditions

The Supreme Court on Wednesday (21 May) granted bail to Ashoka University’s Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad but strongly criticised his social media remarks on Operation Sindoor, asking why he needed to seek “cheap popularity”.

Associate professor and Head of the Department of Political Science at Ashoka University, Mahmudabad was arrested last week for a social media post on Operation Sindoor.

He was charged under sections linked to promoting enmity between groups and acts seen as threatening national integrity and sovereignty.

Appearing for Mahmudabad, senior advocate Kapil Sibal argued before Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh, seeking relief from the court.

In response to the arguments, Justice Kant said, "Yes, everyone has the right to free speech and expression... Is it the time to talk about all of this? The country is already going through all this... monsters came and attacked our people... we have to be united. Why (do this) to get cheap popularity on these occasions?", NDTV reported.

Sibal maintained there was no criminal intent in the professor's social media post.

Justice Kant countered by pointing out the imbalance between rights and responsibilities, stating, "You should know what is happening. There is a right to free speech etc... where is the duty? As if the whole country for the last 75 years is only distributing rights and no duty."

Calling the professor’s language “dogwhistling,” Justice Kant said, "Very unfortunate for a society with free speech when choice of words is deliberately made to insult, humiliate and cause discomfort to the other side. He should not have lack of dictionary words to use. He can use language which does not hurt sentiments of others, use a neutral language".

Sibal said that the comments had no "criminal intent" and added that the petitioner's wife is nine months pregnant and expecting child delivery soon.

The court, however, said no case of pausing the investigation is made out.

"We direct the petitioner be released on interim bail... Having regard to the contents of two alleged offending online posts, we are satisfied that no case for staying the investigation is made out," the top court said.

"However, to understand the complexity and for proper appreciation of the language used in the post, we direct DGP Haryana to constitute a SIT comprising three IPS officers who do not belong to Haryana or Delhi. SIT shall be headed by Inspector General of police and one of the members shall be a woman officer," it said.

The court granted bail to the professor with three conditions: he will not write any article or online post or deliver any speech related to the case, he won't comment on the Pahalgam attack or Operation Sindoor and he will surrender his passport.

The professor faces two FIRs, one of them filed by Renu Bhatia, chairperson of the Haryana State Commission for Women, for his remarks on the government's choice of Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh for Operation Sindoor briefings.

In his original post, Mahmudabad welcomed the praise for Col Qureshi but called for equal concern for lynching victims and bulldozing cases, warning that symbolic representation without real action amounts to “hypocrisy”.

The women commission said a review of Khan's remarks raises 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".

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