The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned the hearing of the habeas corpus plea filed by Gitanjali J Angmo, wife of environmentalist Sonam Wangchuk, challenging his detention under the National Security Act (NSA). The matter has been listed for hearing on October 14 before a bench comprising Justices Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria.
During the hearing, the court issued notices to the Centre, Jammu & Kashmir administration, and the Rajasthan government regarding Angmo’s plea, which seeks her husband’s immediate release and access. The bench also questioned why the grounds of Wangchuk’s detention had not been communicated to his wife, noting that while they had been served to Wangchuk, there was no legal barrier to providing a copy to his spouse.
Wangchuk, a well-known environmentalist and social reformer from Ladakh, was detained on September 26, two days after violent protests in the Union Territory demanding statehood and Sixth Schedule status left four dead and around 90 injured. He was shifted to Jodhpur Central Jail, without access to family, personal belongings, or medicines.
In her petition, Angmo alleged that Wangchuk’s detention was illegal, arbitrary, and unconstitutional, violating Articles 14, 19, 21, and 22 of the Constitution. The plea also accused authorities of suppressing peaceful environmental activism and democratic dissent, and highlighted the mental anguish suffered by the local community, including reports of suicide and harassment of students and staff at the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh (HIAL), which Wangchuk founded. Angmo herself has reportedly been placed under virtual house arrest.
Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Vivek Tankha represented Angmo, while the Solicitor General appeared for the Centre. Sibal emphasized that Angmo had not been allowed to meet her husband and requested access, as well as the provision of medicines, clothing, and other necessities for Wangchuk, who had been fasting before detention. The Solicitor General responded that 12 individuals had been permitted to meet Wangchuk, and cautioned against creating an “emotive atmosphere.”
Before approaching the Supreme Court, Angmo had also written to President Droupadi Murmu seeking her husband’s release. The petition names the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ladakh UT administration, Leh deputy commissioner, and the Jodhpur jail superintendent as respondents, and seeks quashing of the preventive detention order, immediate access, and production of all detention records.
Wangchuk, through his elder brother Tseten Dorjee, conveyed willingness to remain in Jodhpur jail until an independent judicial inquiry into the Leh violence is completed. Following special permission for lawyers and Dorjee to meet him, they confirmed that Wangchuk is physically and mentally healthy, expressed gratitude to supporters, and offered condolences to victims’ families, while praying for the injured and detained activists.
The plea also demands that authorities cease harassment of HIAL members and students and provide a medical report on Wangchuk before the Supreme Court immediately.
