Listen To This Post
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Union government and the Ladakh administration on a petition filed by climate activist Sonam in response to a petition filed by Sonam Wangchuk’s wife, Gitanjali J. Angmo, challenging his detention under the National Security Act (NSA). The plea seeks his immediate release and questions the legality of his incarceration.
A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N V Anjaria, however, declined to pass any interim order on Angmo’s request for access to the grounds of detention. The matter has been listed for further hearing on October 14.
Wangchuk, a globally known innovator and environmentalist, was detained on September 26 under the stringent NSA, just two days after large-scale protests in Ladakh demanding statehood and inclusion under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution turned violent, leaving four people dead and around 90 injured.
According to Angmo, her husband’s detention amounts to a clampdown on peaceful democratic dissent. She has also written to President Droupadi Murmu seeking her intervention, alleging that the Ladakh police tortured Wangchuk’s associates following the protests.
Wangchuk is currently lodged in Jodhpur Central Jail in Rajasthan, far from his home region. His supporters have termed the move an attempt to silence the voices of Ladakhis pressing for constitutional safeguards. At the same time, authorities maintain that the NSA detention was necessary to prevent further unrest.
The case has now drawn national attention, with the Supreme Court’s notice setting the stage for a high-stakes hearing that could decide both Wangchuk’s liberty and the limits of preventive detention in the context of political movements.
