NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday observed that Gautam Buddha Nagar district magistrate Medha Roopam could not be isolated from the larger decision-making process that led to the detention of student protester Akriti Chaudhary under the National Security Act (NSA).While hearing Roopam’s plea challenging Allahabad high court judgment, a bench of justices SC Sharma and NK Singh observed that if the decision-making chain ran “from top to bottom”, the district magistrate could not be singled out.“We can’t isolate her… as fine of Rs 5 lakh,” the apex court observed.Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, submitted that the DM had acted on reports that passed through the SHO, DCP and commissioner before reaching her. He also pointed out that the NSA Advisory Board had examined the detention.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Roopam, said there were five stages before the DM issued the detention order and that her role was to form an opinion after the statutory safeguards had been followed.
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The hearing comes days after the Allahabad high court quashed the NSA detention of Akriti Chaudhary, a 25-year-old student who was taken into custody in connection with a workers’ protest in Noida in April.The high court found that the detention was based on a story “concocted” by the state and directed Chaudhary’s immediate release if she was not required in any other case.It also directed that Rs 5 lakh in compensation be deducted from Roopam’s salary and ordered that the court’s displeasure against the DM and police officers involved in preparing the dossier be recorded in their service records.The Allahabad high court had also warned Roopam that continued “despotic” conduct by an “errant” bureaucracy could reduce Uttar Pradesh to an Orwellian dystopia.
