New Delhi: The Supreme Court will on Monday take up the petition filed by climate activist Sonam Wangchuk’s wife, alleging that his detention under the National Security Act (NSA) is illegal, arbitrary, and in breach of fundamental rights.
According to the apex court’s cause list, the matter is listed before a bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N V Anjaria. The court had earlier, on October 29, issued notices to the Centre and the Ladakh administration on the amended petition moved by Gitanjali J Angmo.
Wangchuk, a prominent education reformer and environmental advocate, was detained on September 26—two days after violent protests in Ladakh demanding statehood and Sixth Schedule status left four people dead and nearly 90 injured. Authorities accused him of inflaming tensions, a charge the petition rejects as unfounded.
Angmo’s plea asserts that the detention “rests on stale FIRs, vague allegations, and speculative claims” without any proximate link to public order. It describes the move as an “abuse of preventive powers” that undermines constitutional protections and due process.
The petition points to what it calls a pattern of official action ahead of the elections and ongoing negotiations between Ladakh groups and the Union Home Ministry. Notices relating to land lease and FCRA compliance, a CBI inquiry, and income-tax summons were issued to Wangchuk in the same period, which the plea argues demonstrates a coordinated attempt to curb dissent rather than address security concerns.
The plea also maintains that the September 24 violence in Leh cannot be traced to Wangchuk’s conduct. It notes that he condemned the clashes publicly, calling the day “the saddest” of his life and warning that violence would derail Ladakh’s five-year “tapasya” for constitutional safeguards.
Further, the petition flags a 28-day delay in furnishing the full grounds of detention—well beyond the timeline mandated under Section 8 of the NSA, which requires communication of grounds within five days, or ten in exceptional cases.
The NSA allows preventive detention for up to 12 months to avert acts deemed prejudicial to national defence. Wangchuk’s legal challenge now places the government’s invocation of the stringent law under the Supreme Court’s scrutiny.
