Allahabad HC quashes NSA detention of DU graduate held over Noida workers’ protest
The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday, September 2, quashed the National Security Act detention of Aakriti Chaudhary, a 25-year-old Delhi University history graduate held for around five months over the April 2026 Noida workers' protest, and directed her immediate release unless wanted in any other case. A bench of Justices Atul Sreedharan and Achal Sachdev, allowing her habeas corpus petition, found the detention rested on what it called a concocted story by the state.
Chaudhary was picked up by UP Police on April 12, 2026, along with factory worker Manisha and software engineer Adit Anand, days after the protest by Noida factory workers demanding higher wages turned violent on April 13, with over 350 people arrested. Police invoked the NSA against her a month later, on May 13, 2026, alleging she played a significant role in instigating violence and citing a book recovered from her residence as evidence of her ideological leanings.
The bench found procedural lapses in how her arrest was recorded. Examining the general diary entry, the court noted that Chaudhary appeared to have already been arrested before a notice under Section 130 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita was even prepared, undercutting the state's account of the sequence of events. A detailed order is awaited.
Chaudhary was one of two people booked under the NSA over the protest, the other being 60-year-old former journalist Satyam Verma, whose wife Shakambhari filed a separate habeas corpus petition on his behalf on May 8, 2026. Lawyers for both had argued police had no direct evidence linking their clients to the violence, and were using the NSA, which allows detention without trial for up to a year, to keep them in custody regardless of the case's merits.
The Allahabad High Court has previously flagged concerns over NSA misuse in the state, red-flagging a large share of habeas corpus petitions filed against such detentions in past years.
