Rights group criticises probe linked to TISS event honouring G.N. Saibaba

By A Representative 

The human rights coalition Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) issued a statement on 15 August 2026 strongly condemning a Mumbai Police investigation into students, former students and professors of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences linked to an October 2025 programme commemorating the late professor G.N. Saibaba. The group said the arrest of a former TISS student, notices issued to professors over their communications with students, and scrutiny of routine academic fieldwork form a disturbing pattern of placing academic spaces, political expression and reading material under police surveillance.

CASR highlighted particular concern that the probe has been expanded to cover alleged possession or downloading of books and literature described by police as reflecting Maoist ideology. The organisation rejected any equation of reading, possessing, downloading or discussing political literature with participation in a criminal conspiracy. It cited the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Vernon Gonsalves & Anr. v. State of Maharashtra, which held that mere possession of literature, even if it inspires or propagates violence, does not by itself constitute a terrorist act under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or related offences. CASR stated that a democratic society cannot criminalise people for possessing books containing ideas the state finds objectionable and that police must establish an actual criminal act with the required legal connection rather than rely on books, PDFs, messages or academic material alone.

The statement also rejected attempts to criminalise students for allegedly expressing solidarity with undertrial prisoners Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam. CASR noted that both remain undertrial, have not been convicted of the charges against them, and that demands for their release or for the release of all political prisoners are political expressions of solidarity and opinion about the use of criminal law and prolonged incarceration. It said the Supreme Court’s January 2026 decision denying them bail did not convert such demands into criminal acts or extinguish the constitutional right to criticise the decision or call for their release.

CASR placed the TISS investigation in a wider pattern of selective police targeting of student protests, demonstrations, posters, placards and solidarity campaigns for political prisoners across states. It referred to a recent FIR registered by Bengaluru Police after a woman allegedly displayed placards supporting Khalid and Imam during a student protest at Freedom Park. The group argued that if citizens may publicly demand the release of convicted persons, they must be permitted to demand the release of undertrial prisoners, and that criminal law cannot become an instrument for determining which political opinions are permissible.

Particular objection was raised to scrutiny of mandatory TISS fieldwork. CASR said social-science students are required to travel to communities to understand political, social and economic conditions, and treating such visits as suspicious threatens the foundation of social-science education. It maintained that academic research is not a police interrogation, a university is not a surveillance centre, and a field visit is not a conspiracy. Questioning of professors solely for communicating with a former student was also described as raising serious concerns about academic freedom and the confidentiality of academic relationships.

The organisation noted the irony that the students had gathered to remember Saibaba, a professor and human-rights defender once convicted under the UAPA but later acquitted by the Bombay High Court. Commemorating him, reading his poems, discussing his ideas or questioning the circumstances of his incarceration cannot itself be treated as evidence of criminality, CASR said. It warned that criminalising students for posters, questioning professors for communicating with students, investigating academic fieldwork and treating books as incriminating material amounts to an assault on the democratic character of education.

CASR demanded the immediate release of the arrested former TISS student and an end to the criminalisation of student political expression; withdrawal of notices and harassment of TISS professors based merely on communications with students; an end to police scrutiny of routine academic fieldwork and research; no prosecution solely on the basis of possession, downloading, reading or discussing political literature, in line with the Vernon Gonsalves ruling; an end to treating the reading of books and literature as a criminal act; an end to criminalising slogans, posters and peaceful expressions of solidarity with Khalid, Imam and other political prisoners; and the repeal of the UAPA and other laws that facilitate prolonged incarceration and the criminalisation of dissent.

The statement concluded that a democratic state cannot criminalise an idea, a book or a slogan merely because it dislikes them, and that the state may disagree with or contest political demands but cannot use police and criminal law to decide what students may read, what professors may research, whom citizens may support, or which political prisoners people may demand be released.