Last week, inside a Supreme Court courtroom, Justices Satish Chandra Sharma and N Kotiswar Singh swiftly ruled after hearing brief submissions from Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi. The two-judge Bench stayed the Allahabad High Court's strongly worded order that had quashed the National Security Act (NSA) detention of Delhi University student Akriti Chaudhary and passed a Rs 5 lakh compensation order against Gautam Buddh Nagar District Magistrate Medha Roopam.
The HC, in its order, had described the DM's conduct as "worthy of derision"—and held her "guilty of violating her oath of allegiance".
The SC order on 23 September initially stated that "the operation of the impugned judgment, particularly paragraphs 27 to 33, shall remain stayed," which effectively stayed the entire HC judgment—including the core ruling quashing the NSA detention.
However, the Court subsequently revised its order the next day to clarify that the stay applied only to the strictures against the DM and the award of costs, not to the quashing of Chaudhary's NSA detention itself. The matter has been listed for further hearing on 7 October.
Roopam is the daughter of India's Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar who's facing questions over his unilateral decision-making regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.