Student activist held under NSA after Noida wage protest; High Court quashed it, Supreme Court stays its strictures
Noida's District Magistrate ordered a 24-year-old Delhi University graduate detained under the National Security Act after the April 2026 workers' wage protest. On 2 September 2026 the Allahabad High Court quashed the detention as passed without application of mind and ordered Rs 5 lakh compensation. On 23 September the Supreme Court stayed the compensation and strictures against the Magistrate pending hearing.
This page records what the cited court records and reports say happened. Findings belong to the court or authority that made them; this register adds none of its own. Names of private individuals are withheld unless a naming gate clears them.
How we verify →The High Court's quashing of the NSA detention is under challenge; its compensation and strictures are stayed pending the Supreme Court hearing on 7 October 2026.
What happened
LiveLaw reported that she was arrested in cases arising from the Noida workers' protest for higher wages in April 2026 and that Uttar Pradesh Police invoked the National Security Act against her and a journalist-activist on 13 May 2026.
LiveLaw reported that on 2 September 2026 the Allahabad High Court quashed her detention, holding the order and grounds were devoid of material and passed without application of mind, and awarded Rs 5 lakh compensation to be recovered from the District Magistrate's salary.
Before the Supreme Court the State argued, LiveLaw reported, that she was fomenting trouble and that the agitation led to arson and destruction of public property in April; her counsel appeared on caveat.
The Supreme Court stayed paragraphs 27 to 33 of the High Court judgment, including the costs and strictures, and listed the case on 7 October 2026.
What the record says
“this Court is of the opinion that till the matter is heard on merits, the operation of paras nos. 27 to 33 of the impugned judgment including award of costs and strictures against the petitioner shall remain stayed.”
Supreme Court record of proceedings (revised), SLP (Crl.) Diary No. 56202/2026, 23.09.2026, para 8 — read the full text
Punished for a freedom
A student activist was held without trial under a preventive-detention law after a wage protest, on grounds a High Court found devoid of material.
What we could not confirm
The High Court judgment itself was not read; its findings are from LiveLaw. The State alleges she instigated a protest that turned violent; no court has found that she did.