The Supreme Court on Wednesday partially stayed an Allahabad High Court order that had strongly criticised Gautam Buddha Nagar District Magistrate Medha Roopam in a case involving the detention of Akriti Chaudhary, a Delhi University History graduate, under the stringent National Security Act (NSA).
A Bench of Justices Satish Chandra Sharma and NK Singh also put on hold the High Court's direction to pay Rs 5 lakh in compensation to Chaudhary. The High Court had ordered that the amount be recovered from the salaries of Roopam and other officials associated with the case.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Supreme Court had restricted the hearing and disabled video-conferencing access while issuing its directions before reserving its order.
The case relates to Chaudhary's detention following protests by industrial workers in Noida in April. Roopam had challenged the Allahabad High Court's ruling, which found that the report submitted against Chaudhary lacked credible material.
The High Court had observed that the concerned officer should have exercised greater caution and carefully examined the records before invoking what it described as the NSA's “oppressive provisions”. It had also said that Roopam's conduct in the matter was deserving of derision.
On September 2, a Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court comprising Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Achal Sachdev quashed Chaudhary's detention under the NSA and directed that she receive Rs 5 lakh as compensation.
The High Court had ordered that the compensation be recovered not only from the District Magistrate's salary but also from the salaries of all officials involved in preparing the report that ultimately resulted in Chaudhary's detention under the law.
The court had also stated that officers belonging to the Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service owed their allegiance to the Constitution rather than the political executive.
It further observed that bureaucrats and police officials who fail to honour their oath and loyalty to India and its Constitution could be viewed by the public as an oppressive legacy of the British Empire. The court warned that unless excessive actions by bureaucrats were checked through judicial intervention, the State could potentially become an Orwellian dystopia.
Based on these observations, the High Court had overturned Chaudhary's detention under the NSA. The Supreme Court has now partially stayed the ruling, including its compensation direction, and will hear the matter again on October 7.
