Former TISS student moves Bombay HC for pre-arrest bail over campus event

A former TISS student has moved the Bombay High Court for anticipatory bail in the FIR over last year's GN Saibaba commemoration on campus. His plea argues the gathering was a lawful discussion and contests the BNS charges as inapplicable.The High Court is scheduled to hear the plea on Friday.A former Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) student has approached the Bombay High Court seeking anticipatory bail in connection with an FIR registered over an unauthorised campus gathering held last year to commemorate late Delhi University professor G N Saibaba.The plea comes days after a Mumbai sessions court rejected his pre-arrest bail application while granting relief to some of the other accused students.The 24-year-old Development Studies graduate, represented by advocate Vijay Hiremath, has sought urgent relief from the High Court, arguing that the gathering was a peaceful meeting where students discussed literature, exchanged ideas and deliberated on political issues.The plea contends that such activities cannot be criminalised or attract serious penal charges. HIGH COURT TO HEAR PLEA ON FRIDAYHiremath sought an urgent hearing on Thursday, pointing out that the student had been protected from arrest for nearly 10 months under interim relief granted by the sessions court.The High Court is scheduled to hear the plea on Friday. Another student whose anticipatory bail plea was rejected in the same case has already been arrested and is currently in judicial custody.According to the petition, the applicant has no criminal antecedents and has never been issued a show-cause notice by TISS for misconduct or creating any disturbance on campus.The plea also disputes the allegations contained in the FIR, claiming that investigators have falsely alleged that the applicant or other students raised slogans seeking the release of UAPA accused Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam during the gathering held in memory of Saibaba.The student has further argued that provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) invoked in the case have been wrongly applied.The petition states that Section 196, which deals with promoting enmity between groups, is not attracted as no speech or conduct promoted hatred or violence.It also contends that Section 197, relating to acts prejudicial to national integration, has no application since no such incident occurred.PLEA CHALLENGES COURT DECISIONChallenging the sessions court's order, the plea argues that the court wrongly distinguished the applicant from co-accused solely because certain literature was allegedly recovered from him.It asserts that possessing books of any ideology is protected under the Constitution and cannot by itself constitute a criminal offence.The case arises from an FIR registered at Mumbai's Trombay Police Station on October 13, 2025, following a complaint by TISS Associate Dean Dr Vaishali Banudas Kolhe.The investigation, later transferred to the Crime Branch CID, alleges that 10 to 12 students held an unauthorised gathering on the TISS campus on October 12, 2025, where candles were lit, posters displayed, poems recited and slogans allegedly raised without the institute's permission.- EndsPublished By: Ritaban MisraPublished On: Aug 13, 2026 18:01 IST