Supreme Court issues notice on Manipur Activist's plea for compensation for illegal detention under NSA

The Supreme Court issued a notice in response to a prayer in a petition filed by the father of Manipur-based political activist Leichobam Erendro seeking compensation for his illegal detention under the National Security Act (NSA) after a Facebook post stating that cow dung or cow urine will not cure COVID. In the present petition it was contended that this was not a case of NSA being invoked just to defeat Erendro’s bail and that it was based on malice in law. Erendro was detained for the first time on May 13, 2021, for a Facebook post in which he quoted “the cure for Corona is not cow dung & cow urine. The cure is science & common sense Professor ji RIP“The statement was made following the death of Manipur BJP President Prof. Tikendra Singh, which was intended as a criticism to BJP politicians who advocated cow-urine and cow-dung as COVID-19 treatment. A few local BJP leaders were enraged by the Facebook post and filed a complaint, which resulted to his detention. The District Magistrate of Imphal West District detained him under NSA on 17.05.2021, the day he was given bail by the local court. In this matter the Supreme Court ordered the release of the detenue as an interim relief after stating that his continued detention would be a violation of the right to life and personal liberty as guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution and granted the respondents two weeks to file a response on the matter of compensation.