Allahabad HC Warning Against Yogi Adityanath’s Police

The Allahabad High Court judgement of September 2, castigating the Uttar Pradesh police and senior bureaucracy for imposing the brutal National Security Act (NSA) on student leader Akriti Choudhury, who was among the leaders of the April Noida labour unrest for higher wages, has to be welcomed.

What followed the labour strike was a brutal assault resulting in the unprecedented arrest of over 200 labourers and some leaders, including Akriti, under stringent laws.

The court not only quashed the application of NSA but, in a rare instance, awarded a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to Akriti to be paid by the District Magistrate and senior police officers all the way down to the SHO.

Court Rebukes Officials

For many years now, the repressive measures of the Adityanath government, including demolition of houses of Muslims based on flimsy charges, large-scale encounter killings, and breaking the legs of petty criminals in police custody, were signs of a governance with no respect for law.

Though some judgements had earlier warned against such state brutality, this is the first which puts responsibility on government officials and punishes them for ignoring due process of law and running a repressive regime.

The judgement was rightly harsh on Medha Roopam, District Magistrate of Gautam Buddha Nagar (Noida), saying that her conduct in slapping the NSA without any material on record on a young college student “is worthy of derision”.

Instead of being vigilant against the vague and fancy allegations put up by the police, the DM accepted it all and imposed “oppressive provisions”. The judgement by Justices Atul Sreedharan and Achal Sachdev castigated all Noida police officers for their “despotic conduct”, and said the DM violated the constitutional rights of the petitioner and “is guilty of violating the oath of allegiance, making this a fit case for the imposition of compensation to the petitioner”.

Criticism Of UP Government

This judgement could not have come at a better time. The UP government has again thrown all laws concerning human rights into the dustbin in the Chief Minister’s office. It has been a dictatorial rule by any standards, forcing the judges to term it a “dystopian world” foreseen and written about by George Orwell. It is not just about the NSA being slammed for minor cases.

The police raj has run riot in UP, and poor people live in constant fear of being picked up and shot in the leg or their houses getting demolished. The CM, who wears a monk’s robe, has shown no sign of empathy for the poor but has unleashed police cruelty on the long-suffering people of the state.

After this direct reference to her for ignoring due process of law and the punishment imposed by the HC, the DM of Noida has no option but to quit office.

Published on: Tuesday, September 08, 2026, 10:39 PM IST