New Delhi: The government of Haryana has told the Supreme Court of India on Monday (March 16) that it has decided not to grant sanction to prosecute Ali Khan Mahmudabad, an associate professor at Ashoka University, over his social media posts following Operation Sindoor, as per reports.Appearing for the state government, Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju told a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant that the state had decided against prosecuting Mahmudabad and was showing “one-time magnanimity” in closing the issue, Bar and Bench reports. Taking note of the submission, the court said that since sanction had not been granted, the proceedings pending before the trial court would stand closed. In other words, the case against him has been quashed.The court, however, cautioned the professor to act “prudently” in the future, .During a January hearing, a Supreme Court bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked the state government to take a more lenient view of the case against Mahmudabad. This followed from the fact that even seven months into the start of procedings, the government had not granted sanction to prosecute him.The case stems from Mahmudabad’s arrest on May 18, 2025 by Haryana Police after two FIRs were lodged over his social media posts criticising war rhetoric following Operation Sindoor. The complaints were filed by Renu Bhatia, chairperson of the Haryana Women’s Comission, and a village sarpanch in Sonipat district, Yogesh Jatheri, affiliated with the BJP.Mahmudabad was booked under several provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including Section 152 (acts endangering the sovereignty or unity of India) and Section 353 (statements conducing to public mischief), among others, which leaned towards charges of sedition.On May 21 last year, the Supreme Court had granted Mahmudabad interim bail while allowing the investigation to continue. A bench led by Justice Surya Kant had then directed the formation of a Special Investigation Team of three IPS officers from outside Haryana and Delhi to probe the case and restrained the professor from making public comments on the Pahalgam attack or India’s military response. The court also orally deprecated his posts, Live Law reports.The conditions set for Mahmudabad’s bail were stringent, and the SIT was allowed to report back to the court if it had findings beyond the social media posts. The bail was granted to “facilitate the investigation”, the order by Justice Surya Kant and Justice N.K. Singh noted. It barred the professor from expressing any opinion on the terrorist attack in Pahalgam.On May 28, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta restricted the scope of the SIT’s probe, saying that it should be limited to the two first information reports alone.The court had also asked him to surrender his passport and barred him from writing or speaking publicly on the issues that were the subject of the case.Mahmudabad’s arrest had triggered criticism from academics, civil liberties advocates and opposition politicians, who argued that the case raised concerns about free speech and the criminalisation of anti-war commentary.