Supreme Court pauses order to recover ₹5 lakh from DM over NSA detention
The Supreme Court has put on hold the directive to deduct ₹5 lakh compensation from district magistrate Medha Roopam’s salary in the Akriti Chaudhary National Security Act detention case.
Justices Satish Chandra Sharma and N Kotiswar Singh of the Supreme Court reserved their order on the plea filed by Gautam Buddh Nagar district magistrate Medha Roopam, who contested an Allahabad High Court directive to recover ₹5 lakh compensation from her salary. The compensation was awarded to 25-year-old Delhi University graduate Akriti Chaudhary, detained under the National Security Act after the April workers’ protest in Noida.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta argued that the high court’s strictures were issued without notice and unfairly singled out the magistrate, while senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the Uttar Pradesh government, maintained that the detention order, though possibly flawed, should not be undone. The bench permitted Chaudhary’s lawyer to file a response and postponed the final ruling. The high court had also recorded displeasure with the district magistrate and police in their service records, warning against “despotic” bureaucracy. The case underscores judicial scrutiny of administrative actions taken under the NSA.
Why it matters
It shows the courts checking bureaucratic misuse of the NSA and holding officials financially accountable.
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