Mumbai: HC orders protection from arrest to TISS student booked for sedition

The TISS student has been asked not to leave the limits of Mumbai and Thane until further orders. (File)

The Bombay High Court Tuesday granted interim relief to Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) student Urvashi Chudawala, who has been booked for sedition for allegedly raising slogans in support of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Sharjeel Imam.

A single-judge Bench of Justice SK Shinde ordered interim protection from arrest to the TISS student.

The court in its interim order noted that in event of arrest, Chudawala should be released on personal bond of Rs 25, 000 and directed her to attend to be present at a police station on February 12 and 13 between 11 am and 2 pm.

The court also asked Chudawala not to leave the limits of Mumbai and Thane until further orders, and to deposit her handset with dual sim to the Investigation Officer tomorrow.

Justice SK Shinde also inquired if the police had followed guidelines earlier laid down by HC, which require written legal opinion to be taken as pre-condition while invoking a sedition case. To this, state counsel Deepak Thakare said they had not sought an opinion, but would get it soon.

Chudawala had last Friday moved Bombay High Court after the Sessions Court rejected her anticipatory bail plea.

Mumbai Police on February 3 had booked Chudawala along with 50 others for allegedly shouting slogans in support of Sharjeel Imam, arrested on sedition charges, during an LGBTQ rally at Azad Maidan on February 1. Imam was arrested on January 28 for allegedly making inflammatory speeches during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

The sessions court had refused Chudawala interim protection from arrest. It, however, denied an interim stay on its order to allow her to file an appeal before the High Court.

As per the plea filed by advocate Vijay Hiremath, appearing for Chudawala, the TISS student is alleged to have shouted slogans and videos of the said slogans are already with police. “The slogans raised by the applicant were neither intended to nor resulted in any violence or incitement to violence at the Azad Maidan,” it stated.

The plea added that the entire case was based on a video that was already in the custody of the police, and hence no case for custodial interrogation was made. “The applicant was exercising her fundamental right to speech and unless the speech results in imminent lawless action, it cannot be criminalised,” it stated.

Chudawala also submitted that Azad Maidan police station personnel have been “erroneously” and “falsely” trying to implicate and frame her in the case.

According to the FIR, the slogan “Sharjeel tere sapno ko hum manzil tak pahuchaenge (Sharjeel, we will fulfill your dreams)” was raised at the Mumbai Pride Solidarity Gathering on February 1.

The Sessions Court had held that Chudawala’s custodial interrogation was necessary, including the need to access her Facebook account. “IPC Section 124 A (sedition) prescribes punishment to a maximum term of life imprisonment. Offences registered against the applicant are definitely serious in nature… the court is required to keep in mind the effect of the order on the public at large,” it said.
The HC posted the case for further hearing on February 24.