The Allahabad High Court has come down heavily on Gautam Buddha Nagar District Magistrate Medha Roopam, who had issued the order to detain a 25-year-old Delhi University law student under the National Security Act (NSA) over a workers’ protest in Noida in April this year. In a detailed order released on Monday (September 7, 2026), the court observed that Ms. Roopam “desired to make an example” out of the petitioner.
How Noida workers’ protest landed a DU student in jail under NSA
A Bench of Justices Atul Sreedharan and Achal Sachdev had on September 2 quashed the NSA detention of Akriti Chaudhary, who had spent nearly five months in custody.
The Bench had allowed Ms. Chaudhary’s habeas corpus petition and ordered her immediate release, unless she was required in another case. The court flagged discrepancies in the arrest notice and termed the State’s version a “concocted story”.
Ms. 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 in salary and parity with wages paid in neighbouring Haryana. The protest had turned violent on April 13 and roads were blocked.
