diff --git a/metadata/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/image/ScramDelta.java b/metadata/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/image/ScramDelta.java
index fc8da6960f3d0..756d0e53dd5c9 100644
--- a/metadata/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/image/ScramDelta.java
+++ b/metadata/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/image/ScramDelta.java
@@ -92,11 +92,11 @@ public ScramImage apply() {
                     userMap.put(userNameEntry.getKey(), userNameEntry.getValue().get());
                 } else {
                     userMap.remove(userNameEntry.getKey());
-                    if (userMap.isEmpty()) {
-                        newMechanisms.remove(mechanismChangeEntry.getKey());
-                    }
                 }
             }
+            if (userMap.isEmpty()) {
+                newMechanisms.remove(mechanismChangeEntry.getKey());
+            }
         }
         return new ScramImage(newMechanisms);
     }
diff --git a/metadata/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/image/ScramDeltaTest.java b/metadata/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/image/ScramDeltaTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..ec9be713f3253
--- /dev/null
+++ b/metadata/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/image/ScramDeltaTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.kafka.image;
+
+import org.apache.kafka.clients.admin.ScramMechanism;
+import org.apache.kafka.common.metadata.RemoveUserScramCredentialRecord;
+import org.apache.kafka.metadata.ScramCredentialData;
+
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Timeout;
+
+import java.util.Arrays;
+import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.stream.Collectors;
+
+import static org.apache.kafka.clients.admin.ScramMechanism.SCRAM_SHA_256;
+import static org.apache.kafka.clients.admin.ScramMechanism.SCRAM_SHA_512;
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertTrue;
+
+/**
+ * Regression tests for {@link ScramDelta#apply()}.
+ *
+ * <p>Absent REMOVE records must not detach the per-mechanism user map before later UPSERTs
+ * in the same batch are applied.
+ */
+@Timeout(value = 40)
+public class ScramDeltaTest {
+
+    @Test
+    public void testApplyWithNoChangesReturnsBaseImage() {
+        ScramImage base = image(SCRAM_SHA_256, "user-admin");
+        assertEquals(base, new ScramDelta(base).apply());
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testAbsentRemovesBeforeUpsertPreservesUsers() {
+        ScramDelta delta = new ScramDelta(ScramImage.EMPTY);
+        replayRemove(delta, "producer");
+        replayRemove(delta, "consumer");
+        replayUpsert(delta, SCRAM_SHA_256, "user-admin");
+        replayRemove(delta, "update-user");
+        replayRemove(delta, "ext-user");
+        replayUpsert(delta, SCRAM_SHA_512, "cluster-admin");
+
+        ScramImage result = delta.apply();
+
+        assertUserNames(result, SCRAM_SHA_256, "user-admin");
+        assertUserNames(result, SCRAM_SHA_512, "cluster-admin");
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testAbsentRemovesOnlyLeaveImageEmpty() {
+        ScramDelta delta = new ScramDelta(ScramImage.EMPTY);
+        replayRemove(delta, "producer");
+        replayRemove(delta, "consumer");
+
+        assertTrue(delta.apply().isEmpty());
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testRemoveLastExistingUserClearsImage() {
+        ScramImage base = image(SCRAM_SHA_256, "user-admin");
+        ScramDelta delta = new ScramDelta(base);
+        replayRemove(delta, "user-admin");
+
+        assertTrue(delta.apply().isEmpty());
+    }
+
+    private static ScramImage image(ScramMechanism mechanism, String... userNames) {
+        Map<String, ScramCredentialData> users = Arrays.stream(userNames)
+            .collect(Collectors.toMap(name -> name, ScramDeltaTest::credential));
+        return new ScramImage(Map.of(mechanism, users));
+    }
+
+    private static ScramCredentialData credential(String userName) {
+        int seed = userName.hashCode();
+        byte[] bytes = new byte[] {
+            (byte) seed,
+            (byte) (seed >> 8),
+            (byte) (seed >> 16)
+        };
+        return new ScramCredentialData(bytes, bytes, bytes, 4096);
+    }
+
+    private static void replayUpsert(ScramDelta delta, ScramMechanism mechanism, String userName) {
+        ScramCredentialData data = credential(userName);
+        delta.replay(data.toRecord(userName, mechanism));
+    }
+
+    private static void replayRemove(ScramDelta delta, String userName) {
+        delta.replay(new RemoveUserScramCredentialRecord()
+            .setName(userName)
+            .setMechanism(ScramMechanism.SCRAM_SHA_256.type()));
+    }
+
+    private static void assertUserNames(ScramImage image, ScramMechanism mechanism, String... userNames) {
+        assertEquals(
+            Arrays.stream(userNames).collect(Collectors.toSet()),
+            image.mechanisms().get(mechanism).keySet()
+        );
+    }
+}