Allahabad High Court came down heavily on Gautam Buddha Nagar District Magistrate Medha Roopam last week while quashing the detention of a Delhi University student and called her conduct “despotic”.
The court observed that the police report only contained allegations against Chaudhary and it was on the district magistrate to examine the record ‘threadbare’ and see if the case warranted stringent action such as the NSA. The state sought additional time to submit the footage, but the bench refused, pointing out that Chaudhary had already spent five months in jail. The state counsel had told the judges that Chaudhary was arrested on the morning of April 12, 2026, on charges of instigating the mob to resort to arson and stone-pelting. The Uttar Pradesh Police subsequently invoked the National Security Act (NSA), 1980 against Chaudhary. Earlier on Tuesday, September 1, the high court had directed the state government to produce footage showing whether Chaudhary had instigated protesters to engage in stone-pelting or set vehicles ablaze.
On Wednesday last week, the Allahabad high court quashed the detention order against a 25-year-old Delhi University graduate Akriti Chaudhary who has been in judicial custody for around five months in connection with the Noida workers’ protest of April 2026, saying her detention was based on a “concocted story”. The court said that “it shan’t be long before the errant in the bureaucracy reduce the State of Uttar Pradesh to an Orwellian Dystopia”, reported Live Law. “The conduct of the District Magistrate Gautam Buddha Nagar who passed the impugned order, is worthy of derision,” the court said, adding that Roopam “desired to set an example” out of Chaudhary to deter others from protesting or supporting the protesting workers.
