In a significant judgment that upholds civil liberties against executive overreach, the Allahabad High Court quashed the National Security Act (NSA) detention of Akriti Chaudhary, a 25-year-old Delhi University history graduate who spent five months in custody in connection with the Noida workers' protest of April 2026.
“Preventing people from gathering in public spaces or agitating their rights on the grounds of assumed breach of peace, would be throwing the baby out of the bath water,” Justice Atul Sreedharan, who authored the judgment, wrote.
The Division Bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Achal Sachdev not only ordered her immediate release but also awarded Rs 5 lakh compensation, directing its recovery from the salary of the District Magistrate (DM) of Gautam Buddha Nagar, Medha Roopam, along with other officials responsible, "right down to the SHO".
Delivering a stinging rebuke to the Uttar Pradesh administration, the Court warned that continued "despotic" conduct by errant bureaucracy could reduce Uttar Pradesh to an "Orwellian Dystopia". The Bench held that Chaudhary's continued incarceration under the NSA violated her Fundamental Right under Article 21, as the detention order and grounds were devoid of material and passed "without application of mind".
The court observed,
"...this Court, while correcting their excesses and/or illegalities, especially those that impinge upon the civil liberties of the citizens without adequate cause or due process (inhering in the procedure established by law), may pass harsh orders to compensate the citizen so wronged, besides recording their despotic conduct. Else, it shan't be long before the errant in the bureaucracy reduce the State of UP to an Orwellian Dystopia."Allahabad HC