Remarks on Op Sindoor | SC restrains trial court from taking cognisance of charge sheet in FIRs against Ashoka University professor

Restraining a Haryana trial court from acting on a chargesheet filed under sedition provisions, the Supreme Court said it will examine the alleged offences against Ali Khan Mahmudabad.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday restrained the trial court from taking cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the Haryana police Special Investigation Team in connection with an FIR lodged against Ali Khan Mahmudabad, Ashoka University professor for social media posts on 'Operation Sindoor'.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi also quashed one FIR in which the SIT constituted by the top court filed a closure report.

The SIT was to investigate the two FIRs registered against Mahmudabad over his contentious social media posts.

The SIT informed the bench that in one of the cases, it had filed a closure report, while in the other, case, it filed a charge sheet on August 22 after it was found that some offences had been committed.

The bench restrained the trial court from framing any charges in the case.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Mahmudabad, termed the filing of the charge sheet as "most unfortunate". He said they have booked him under section 152 of BNS (sedition), whose validity is under challenge.

The bench asked Sibal to examine the charge sheet and prepare a chart of the alleged offences. The bench said that it would consider the submissions on the next date of hearing.

The court in May this year, had granted interim bail to the professor but declined to put on hold the investigation against him. The apex court had directed the setting up of a three-member SIT to look into the FIRs lodged against him.

The apex court had said that he would not write any article or online post or deliver any speech related to the case, and he would also not comment on the April 22 Pahalgam attack or on Operation Sindoor. The bench, in its order, had asked him to surrender his passport.

Haryana police had arrested the associate professor of Political Science at Ashoka University on May 18 after the state women’s commission summoned him over a Facebook post commenting on the media coverage of Operation Sindoor.