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The Supreme Court connected Tuesday (May 19, 2026) decided to analyse a petition alleging that the State of Uttar Pradesh weaponised its constabulary machinery to infiltrate and crush a morganatic labour agitation successful Noida successful bid to shield firm entities indulging successful “rampant wage theft”.
A Bench headed by Justice B.V. Nagarathna issued announcement to the Uttar Pradesh government, the State Police, and the Union authorities for their effect connected a petition filed by Shakambhari, whose 60-year-old activistic husband, Satyam Verma, was arraigned successful 3 antithetic First Information Reports (FIRs), and slapped with the National Security Act (NSA) to frustrate his chances of getting bail.
“The State has weaponised its constabulary machinery to arbitrarily crush a morganatic labour agitation successful Noida, Uttar Pradesh, shielding firm entities from liability for rampant wage theft, and maliciously criminalising the moving people and civilian nine members done dragnet transgression proceedings,” advocates Shahrukh Alam and Paras Nath Singh submitted.
The petition said its origin successful tribunal was not conscionable astir the amerciable apprehension of Mr. Verma, but a “concerted deployment of arbitrary, dragnet and fabricated transgression proceedings to soundlessness the labour people and its antiauthoritarian allies”.
The erstwhile proceeding had witnessed the tribunal remark that agitating workers should not beryllium treated arsenic “terrorists” by the State, and the authorities had a law work to guarantee a “living wage” to workers. Two protestors whisked distant by the constabulary were produced successful tribunal connected May 19. Their families had moved the apex tribunal seeking their whereabouts. The tribunal directed their continuation successful judicial custody.
Rather than fulfilling its relation arsenic a payment state, the petition said the State had utilized its constabulary officers to covertly go portion of WhatsApp groups of the protestors.
The petition alleged determination was “incontrovertible evidence” showing that “State constabulary unit acted arsenic cause provocateurs to incite the precise unit they are present prosecuting”. The full prosecution was vitiated erstwhile the investigating bureau itself acted arsenic the “architect of the unrest”, the petition said. The tribunal should person an enquiry headed by a retired oregon sitting justice into the relation of the Uttar Pradesh Police, it said.
The plea said the protests, spanning April 10–13, were a spontaneous and peaceful request by mill workers for a statutory minimum wage hike (sparked by a caller 21% summation successful neighbouring Haryana), and an extremity to 12-hour shifts for a specified ₹11,000 per month.
“Extracting labour beneath the minimum wage constitutes forced labour nether Article 23, arsenic held by the Supreme Court. Instead of mediating the quality efficaciously to bring existent changes oregon prosecuting the employers for statutory violations, the State unleashed terrible constabulary brutality and criminalised the workers’ cardinal close to corporate bargaining,” the petition, drawn by advocates Deeksha Dwivedi and Krithika D., said.
It said the State has besides deliberately fragmented a single, continuous labour protestation into 14 abstracted FIRs adjacent though the allegations, geographical locations, and series of events crossed these FIRs were identical.
“This strategical multiplication subjects citizens to an endless rhythm of arrests and remands,” the petition argued.
It said the FIRs should beryllium probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation oregon a Special Investigation Team. The tribunal listed the lawsuit adjacent connected July 21.
