Bidar Sedition: Plea filed in Supreme Court to quash FIRs against mother of student, Headmistress, and Shaheen School management

Even as similar petitions remain pending before the Karnataka High Court, a PIL has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking to quash the First Information Reports (FIRs) registered against the mother of a student, the Headmistress, and the management of Shaheen School in Bidar..A sedition case was registered against the aforementioned for allegedly allowing students to stage a play criticizing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Citizenship Register (NCR) and the National Population Register (NPR)..The Headmistress of the school and a student’s widowed mother were arrested by the state police on January 30 over charges of sedition and for provoking breach of peace. Further, the management of Shaheen School was also booked for 'promoting enmity between different groups' under Sections 124(A) and 153(A) of IPC..The plea filed in the Supreme Court reveals the chain of events that led to the arrest of the mother of the student. "That according to a media report during interrogation, police officers asked the child as to who taught the specific dialogues. The child is said to have pointed to her mother, prompting the police to question the mother and arrest her. The mother, in her response, stated that she did not specifically teach the dialogues. However, the police arrested her.".Bidar Sedition case: Karnataka HC issues notice in PIL seeking action against police for questioning minor students.In this regard, the PIL contends that the police failed to distinguish between academic discourse and sedition in a free country.."That despite well settled principle of law laid down by this Apex Court in plethora of judgments, the Karnataka Police failed to distinguish between the academic discourse/artistic endeavor and sedition in a free country and registered a sedition case against the minor school going children and their parents."Petitioner PIL.To buttress its argument, the petitioner relied on a plethora of judgments to submit that freedom of speech and expression is fundamental to any democracy. On that point, the registration of the FIR on the basis of a play against the CAA is in violation of Articles 19(1) and 21 of the accused persons, the PIL argued.."That in light of the above facts, the petitioner most respectfully submits that “freedom of expression” is supreme and prerequisite in a deliberative democracy which has been clearly violated by the State police authorities by lodging the FIR against school management and a widowed parent of a student who participated in a play “criticizing Citizenship Amendment Act, National Citizenship Register & National Population Register."Petitioner PIL.The petition went on to rely on the decision of Kedar Nath Singh v. State of Bihar, in which it was held,"A citizen has a right to say or write whatever he likes about the Government, or its measures, by way of criticism or comment, so long as he does not incite people to violence against the Government established by law or with the intention of creating public disorder.".Further, the PIL further referred to the case of Common Cause v. Union of India, in which the Apex Court held that charges of sedition cannot be invoked for criticizing the government. .In view of the above, the PIL sought to quash the FIRs. It also prays for a direction to the state to constitute a committee to scrutinize complaints under 124A (Sedition) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) before registration of an FIR.The PIL was filed and drawn by Advocate Utsav Singh Bains. Advocate Naresh Kumar will appear on behalf of the petitioners..Last week, the widowed mother and the Headmistress, who were arrested on charges of sedition by the Bidar Police, were granted bail by the Principal District and Sessions Court in Bidar..Two days ago, the Karnataka government submitted to the Karnataka High Court that 17 students of Shaheen School in Bidar were “counselled” and not “interrogated” following an anti-CAA play at the school on January 21.