While extending interim protection from arrest to them on Monday, the sessions court judge hearing the anticipatory bail applications of nine Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) students booked for a gathering to mark the death anniversary of former Delhi University professor GN Saibaba in October pulled up the students from TISS, warning that the case against them could adversely affect their careers and employability!
Nine students have been named in an FIR filed by the Trombay police, and the hearing on their anticipatory bail applications is pending before the session’s court. On Monday, January 19, Additional Sessions Judge Manoj B Oza addressed the students, who were standing in a line at the back of the courtroom.
The order may be read here
“How many of you are from outside Maharashtra? You came to study in Maharashtra for all this. Your fathers know about the case. How many of your fathers are in government jobs? You will not get government jobs because of the case” the judge told the students standing before him. He added that even if they take up private employment, they would have to disclose the pending criminal case against them.
The controversial FIR that directly hits Article 19 –freedom of expression and association (right to protest)–pertains to an event held on the TISS campus in Deonar on October 12, 2025 to mark the first death anniversary of Saibaba. The Bombay High Court had acquitted the 57-year-old academic from Delhi on March 5 2024, which held that the sanction to prosecute him under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) was invalid. The High Court had set aside a 2017 Sessions court order that had sentenced Saibaba to life imprisonment on charges of being an active member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). Tragically, Saibaba died weeks later. There have been allegations of severe health mismanagement and medical irregularities during his imprisonment.
FreeSpeech Collective had released a report on the criminalisation of protest at TISS, which may be read here.
“You have a criminal record now your record is with the police not just here but everywhere in the country. You know that you have made a blunder so early before your career starts your career is ruined,” the judge said.
He then asked their lawyer about the programme the students were pursuing. When told that they were enrolled in a Master’s in Social Work programme, the judge said their degrees would not help them secure employment. “You think you are scientists or engineers even engineers don’t have jobs,” he remarked.
During the previous hearing last year, December 23, 2025 the special public prosecutor had pointed out that the students were not present in court. Their lawyer had then assured the court that they would remain present on Monday.
After addressing the students, the judge asked them to step out of the courtroom and adjourned the hearing to later this month for arguments on their anticipatory bail pleas, while extending the interim protection granted earlier.
The anticipatory bail applications were filed in October 2025 after the Trombay police registered the FIR on a complaint filed by an associate dean of the institute. As part of the investigation, the students’ electronic devices, including their mobile phones and laptops, were seized.
Related:
The Slow Murder of G.N. Saibaba: Watch this Video to Defy Erasure of Public Outcry and Memory