The Uttar Pradesh Government will challenge the Allahabad High Court’s order quashing Delhi University student activist Akriti Chaudhary’s detention under the National Security Act (NSA), Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Mehta made the statement before a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant as he referred to an earlier mentioning by a senior counsel in relation to a notice issued by a Greater Noida Executive Magistrate to a student over participation in a CJP protest and clarified that the notice was issued by an Executive Magistrate and not the District Magistrate.
“I am not on the matter… (but) the Noida DM is flooded with queries from the media, etc. what order have you passed, etc,” the Solicitor General said.
The Bench said the Allahabad High Court has recently quashed an order of the Gautam Buddha Nagar administration on the detention of another student and awarded compensation to her, Mehta said, “That we are challenging.”
A history graduate from Delhi University, Chaudhary was arrested in connection with cases arising from the Noida workers’ protest in April 2026.
The UP Police subsequently invoked the NSA against Chaudhary and activist-journalist Satya Verma on May 13. They were among several activists arrested in cases relating to the peaceful protest seeking higher wages.
On September 2, the Allahabad High Court quashed Chaudhary’s detention under the NSA in relation to workers’ protest in Noida in April and strongly criticised the manner in which the detention order was passed by the Noida District Nagistrate.
“The District Magistrate Gautam Buddha Nagar is guilty of violating her oath of allegiance, making this a fit case for the imposition of compensation to the petitioner,” the High Court said and warned that continued “despotic” conduct by “errant” bureaucracy could reduce Uttar Pradesh to an Orwellian Dystopia.
It awarded Rs 5 lakh compensation to Chaudhary and directed that the amount be recovered from the salary of the Gautam Buddha Nagar DM Medha Roopam, who passed the detention order, and other officers responsible right down to the SHO.
“In this case, the conduct of the District Magistrate Gautam Buddha Nagar who passed the impugned order, is worthy of derision,” the HC said.
