Pune Student’s FIR Quashed by Bombay High Court in Instagram Repost Case Linked to India-Pakistan Conflict
Mumbai/Pune, 27th October 2026: The Bombay High Court has quashed an FIR against engineering student Khadeejah Shahabuddin Shaikh over an Instagram repost concerning the India-Pakistan conflict, finding insufficient material to establish the ingredients of the alleged offences.
Justice Milind N. Jadhav said the possibility that a publication could cause displeasure or resentment was not, by itself, sufficient grounds for criminal prosecution. The allegations, he said, must satisfy the requirements of the penal provisions invoked.
According to the court’s order, a police officer monitoring social media on May 7, 2025, came across a post reposted by Shaikh. The prosecution alleged that it had communal overtones and could have caused tension and affected public peace. The order does not reproduce the post.
The court noted that Shaikh was not the original author and had deleted the repost within two hours, without a direction from investigators. She also publicly expressed remorse and apologised.
The judge described the post as contentious and said it could have had the potential to create apprehension of disturbance between religious communities. He also noted that reposting content could attract criminal liability where the necessary elements of an offence were established.
In this case, however, the court found no substantial material demonstrating the requisite criminal intention or knowledge. It also said no incident of communal disturbance or other unlawful activity attributable to the repost had been brought to its attention. The judge considered that absence alongside the deletion, apology and lack of specific material establishing the statutory requirements.
Shaikh’s lawyer, Farhana Shah, argued that her client had only reposted material created by someone else and that continuing the proceedings would affect her career. She said Shaikh was arrested on May 9, 2025, the day the FIR was registered at Kondhwa Police Station, Pune City Police.
Opposing the application, Additional Public Prosecutor Amit A. Palkar argued that reposting exposed the content to the public and that deletion and an apology did not automatically extinguish criminal liability.
The court noted that Shaikh was pursuing an engineering degree in information technology, had no criminal antecedents and had spent time in custody. It also observed that the roughly two-day interval between the repost and registration of the FIR did not, by itself, make the prosecution illegal.
The FIR had invoked provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita including those concerning acts endangering India’s sovereignty, promotion of enmity between groups and deliberate acts intended to outrage religious feelings.
