SC Extends Interim Bail for Ashoka Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad
Bail granted amid ongoing investigation over controversial social media post on Operation Sindoor
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday prolonged the interim bail of Ashoka University historian Prof Ali Khan Mahmudabad but reiterated that he must stay silent online about the two criminal cases pending against him over his posts on “Operation Sindoor.”
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta stressed that Prof Mahmudabad’s constitutional right to free speech remains intact, yet “no fresh comments—written, spoken or digital—may be made on the subject under investigation.”
Haryana Police may investigate only the two first-information reports filed at Rai police station, Sonipat. “Do not roam left and right,” the bench told state counsel after officers sought the professor’s electronic devices. The three-member special investigation team, constituted by the Court on May 21, must submit a status report at the next hearing. Haryana Police must inform the Court how it has responded to the National Human Rights Commission, which opened a suo motu probe into the arrest.
Prof Mahmudabad was arrested on May 18 under new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 152 (acts endangering sovereignty), 196 (1) (promoting enmity), 353 (statements leading to public mischief) and 79 (insulting the modesty of a woman), following complaints by Haryana Women’s Commission chairperson Renu Bhatia and a local sarpanch. Both allege that the professor’s social-media commentary on “Operation Sindoor”— the Army’s counter-terror response — threatened national integrity.
On May 21 the apex court released him on interim bail but forbade any public remarks about his disputed posts, the terror attack, or India’s military operations. Wednesday’s order keeps those conditions unchanged.
The case will return to the Supreme Court after the SIT files its report.