New Delhi, August 25: The Supreme Court on Monday issued an interim order preventing a Magistrate from taking cognisance of a chargesheet filed against Ali Khan Mahmudabad, Associate Professor and Head of the Political Science Department at Ashoka University, Haryana, for his social media posts related to Operation Sindoor.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi questioned why the Magistrate was "misdirecting itself" in the matter. The order came after Haryana Police informed the court that a closure report had been filed in one of the FIRs lodged against Mahmudabad, while a chargesheet had been submitted in the other. Consequently, the court quashed the FIR in which the closure report was filed and barred proceedings in the second FIR for now.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Mahmudabad, strongly objected to the filing of the chargesheet. In a previous hearing, the apex court had criticised the Haryana Police Special Investigation Team (SIT) for allegedly overstepping its mandate, noting that the SIT—set up specifically to probe two social media posts—had seized Mahmudabad’s devices and inquired about his foreign travels over the past decade.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had granted Mahmudabad interim bail after refusing to stay the investigation into the FIRs registered by Haryana Police. Mahmudabad had moved the apex court challenging his arrest by Haryana Police from his Delhi residence on charges including endangering India’s sovereignty, unity, and integrity through his comments on Operation Sindoor.
The Haryana State Women’s Commission had earlier criticised his remarks, calling them derogatory towards women officers in the Armed Forces and capable of promoting communal disharmony. Summoned in May, Mahmudabad maintained that his statements had been completely misconstrued.
