HC rebukes Maharashtra govt for college student's arrest for post on Indo-Pak conflict
Mumbai (PTI): The Bombay High Court on Tuesday came down heavily on the Maharashtra government for arresting a 19-year-old student from Pune for her social media post on Indo-Pak hostilities, calling its reaction "radical".
A vacation bench of Justices Gauri Godse and Somasekhar Sundaresan asked the teen's lawyer to immediately file a bail plea, which it said it would grant today itself.
The bench said such a "radical" reaction from the state government was unwarranted and has turned a student into a criminal.
The student from Pune was arrested earlier this month for her social media post on Indo-Pak hostilities amid Operation Sindoor.
The girl, who is presently in judicial custody, moved the high court challenging a decision by her college to rusticate her.
"The girl has posted something and then realised her mistake and apologised. Instead of giving her a chance to reform, the state government has arrested her and turned her into a criminal," the bench remarked.
The court questioned the conduct of the government and the college.
"Someone is expressing their opinion, and this is how you ruin her life? A student's life has been ruined," it said.
Additional government pleader P P Kakade said the girl's post was against the national interest. The court, however, said national interest would not suffer because of a post uploaded by a student who has realised her mistake and apologised.
"How can the state arrest a student like this? Does the state want students to stop expressing their opinions? Such a radical reaction from the state will further radicalise the person," the court said. The bench also rapped the college for rusticating the girl, saying that an educational institution's approach should be to reform, not punish.
The job of an educational institution is to not just impart academic education but also to help students reform, the court said, adding that the college ought to have given the girl an opportunity to explain.
"Instead of reforming her and making her understand, you have turned her into a criminal. You want the student to turn into a criminal?" the court said.
It said the girl is at an age where mistakes are bound to happen.
The bench noted that the girl had suffered enough and asked her advocate, Farhana Shah, to immediately file a petition seeking bail. The court said it would order for the girl to be released immediately so that she could appear for her exams.
The teen, in her plea, stated that the college's decision was arbitrary and a gross violation of her fundamental rights.
She requested the High Court to quash the rustication, order her reinstatement, and allow her to appear for the semester exams scheduled to begin on May 24.
The second-year student of Information Technology contended that the rustication order passed by the Sinhgad Academy of Engineering — a private unaided college affiliated with the Savitribai Phule Pune University — was "arbitrary and unlawful".
The petitioner claimed she had reposted the social media post without ill intent and immediately apologised.
On May 7, the girl reposted a post on Instagram from an account called 'Reformistan', which criticised the Indian government for provoking a war against Pakistan.
Within two hours, she realised her mistake and deleted the post after receiving a barrage of threats.
In its May 9 rustication letter, the college stated that since the girl had brought disrepute to the institution, it was justified to preserve the institution's ethos. It further said that the petitioner had anti-national sentiments and posed a risk to the campus community and society.
The girl had to be escorted out of college due to protests against her, and she was arrested the same day by the Kondhwa police after an FIR was registered against her.
She is currently lodged in the Yerwada Prison in Pune in judicial custody, and a local court rejected her bail plea.
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Mumbai-Pune Expressway connecting link now fully operational
Mumbai (PTI): The Mumbai-bound carriageway of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway connecting link was opened to vehicular traffic on Saturday noon after a delay caused by the dismantling of inauguration infrastructure and cleaning work, a day after the Pune section became operational.
The 13.3 km-long "missing link", which bypasses a section of the Bhor Ghat stretch of the expressway and cuts travel time between Mumbai and Pune by 25 to 30 minutes, was inaugurated a day earlier by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in the presence of Deputy CMs Eknath Shinde and Sunetra Pawar.
The Pune-bound carriageway of the corridor was opened to traffic immediately; however, the Mumbai-bound section remained closed to traffic for several hours after the inauguration.
An official of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation told PTI on Saturday that the opening of the Mumbai-bound carriageway was delayed mainly due to the dismantling of the inauguration infrastructure and cleaning work.
The removal of the stage and other decorations was completed in the morning. The work to load and transport the material slightly delayed the opening of the carriageway.
Vehicular movement on the carriageway began after all the remaining material was cleared and road cleaning was completed, the official added.
The expressway control room said that despite significant vehicular movement, the access-controlled highway has not witnessed any major traffic snarls since Friday evening, after the Pune-bound carriageway of the missing link was opened to traffic.
The Missing Link project connects Khopoli (in Raigad) on the Mumbai side to Kusgaon near Lonavala in Pune district and is expected to make the expressway fully access-controlled, easing congestion in the ghat section.
Developed by the MSRDC and dubbed an "engineering marvel", the project includes two tunnels, two viaducts and a cable-stayed bridge over Tiger Valley. It bypasses the steep, accident-prone ghat section, where frequent traffic snarls are reported during weekends and on public holidays.
