The Supreme Court on Wednesday (September 23, 2026) stayed an Allahabad High Court direction to recover ₹5 lakh from the salary of Gautam Buddha Nagar District Magistrate Medha Roopam and other officials to compensate Delhi University student Akriti Chaudhary for detaining her under the National Security Act (NSA) over a workers’ protest in Noida in April this year.
The High Court had criticised Ms. Roopam’s lack of application of mind to a police report against the student activist. It had allowed Ms. Chaudhary’s habeas corpus petition and ordered her immediate release, unless she was required in another case. Ms. The Uttar Pradesh Police had invoked the NSA against Ms. Chaudhary a month later, alleging that she had instigated protesters to engage in stone-pelting and arson.
Chaudhary was among several activists arrested in connection with the protest held between April 10 and 18, during which industrial and contractual workers demanded a hike and parity with wages paid in neighbouring Haryana. The protest had turned violent on April 13.
The High Court had flagged discrepancies in the arrest notice and termed the State’s version a “concocted story”. During a press conference, the police claimed to have “strong electronic and videographic evidence” against her. The High Court had said the District Magistrate, by invoking the oppressive provisions of the NSA against a student activist without any previous criminal record, was setting an “example of her and deter others from exercising their right to freedom of speech and expression in public spaces in support of the labourers”. “The District Magistrate Gautam Buddha Nagar is guilty of violating her oath of allegiance,” the High Court had observed in its decision.
27 to 33, shall remain stayed,” the court ordered, listing the case for October 7. “After hearing senior counsels for the parties, this court is of the opinion that till the matter is heard on merits, the operation of the judgment, particularly paragraphs nos. The seven paragraphs highlighted by the Supreme Court from the High Court decision against Ms.
Roopam had cautioned that the continued “despotic” conduct of an errant bureaucracy could reduce Uttar Pradesh to an “Orwellian Dystopia”.
