Hours after the Supreme Court on Friday rejected a PIL that sought quashing of a FIR registered against a school management, teacher and a widowed mother of a child for alleged sedition, the district and sessions court in Bidar declared that the contents of the play staged in the school in January did not prima facie amount to sedition.
“The children have expressed that they will have to leave the country if they do not produce the documents and except that, there is nothing to show that he has committed the offence of sedition. The dialogue in my considered opinion does not go to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection towards the government,” district judge Managoli Premavathi observed while granting bail to members of the school management charged with sedition.
The judge noted that the drama did not cause any disharmony in society and cited lack of grounds for sedition. “Ingredients of Section 124A of IPC (sedition) are not prima facie made out…The drama has not caused any disharmony in the society,” the judge stated in her order.
On January 28, two women – the mother of a 11-year-old student and a teacher at the school – were arrested on charges of sedition over a play staged in the school on January 21. Nazbunnissa, the mother of a student who uttered dialogues about Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the play, and Fareeda Begum, the head teacher of the school’s primary section were arrested based on a complaint by a right wing activist alleging sedition. The play voiced dissent against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) and was staged by students of classes 4,5, and 6.
In addition to the two women, Mohammed Yousuf Rahim, a journalist, Abdul Qadir, President of Shaheen group of institutions, and four members of the school