Allahabad HC issues notice to Centre, U.P. over journalist's NSA detention

The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday sought responses from the Centre, the Uttar Pradesh government and the Gautam Buddh Nagar District Magistrate on a habeas corpus petition challenging the preventive detention of journalist Satyam Verma under the National Security Act, 1980.

A Bench of Justices Atul Sreedharan and Achal Sachdev issued notices to the authorities, with the matter listed for further hearing on October 7. The detention relates to the April 2026 workers' protest in Noida.

In his plea, Mr. Verma has challenged the detention order passed by the District Magistrate on May 12, as well as the State government's subsequent approval and confirmation orders. He has sought quashing of these orders, his immediate release and compensation for what the petition describes as illegal detention.

A central contention is that the detention order wrongly places him at the site of violence in Noida on April 13. The petition claims CCTV footage and call detail records establish that he was in Lucknow that day and was detained by the Hasanganj Police around 3.30 p.m.

The plea further alleges that the investigating officer did not place the CCTV footage and call records before the detaining authority. It also states that Mr. Verma was not named in any of the 11 FIRs relied upon for his detention.

Mr. Verma has additionally challenged the reliance on statements attributed to a co-accused or witness, Mangal, recorded while in police custody, arguing that such statements could not form the basis for preventive detention.

The petition disputes the authorities' alleged characterisation of his professional income as "riot funding", stating that his earnings as a translator and publisher came through formal banking channels and were disclosed in income tax returns. He has argued that the workers' protest concerned minimum-wage demands and did not amount to a threat to public order warranting detention under the NSA.

The plea also relies on an earlier High Court ruling quashing the preventive detention of co-detainee Akriti Chaudhary in connection with the same agitation. Mr. Verma has separately challenged his initial arrest on the intervening night of April 17 and 18, alleging that plainclothes personnel detained him without an arrest memo and without informing his family.

The development comes a day after another Bench of the High Court deferred his bail plea in one of the 11 criminal cases linked to the protest. The State sought time to file its objections, including on the question of parity with a co-accused who was granted bail on June 23.