‘Conduct worthy of derision’: Allahabad HC pulls up District Magistrate over NSA detention of law student
The Allahabad High Court criticized a District Magistrate for the 'derisory' detention of a law student under the National Security Act. The court quashed the detention, noting that the police case against the student lacked credible evidence.
Why it matters
The ruling serves as a significant check on the use of preventive detention laws against activists and students in India.
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, the court observed that Ms. Roopam “desired to make an example” out of the petitioner.
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”.
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