SC Adjourns Hearing On Wife’s Plea Challenging Sonam Wangchuk’s Detention To Feb 26
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday postponed the hearing to February 26 on the plea filed by Gitanjali J Angmo, wife of jailed climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, against her detention under the National Security Act. A bench comprising Justices Aravind Kumar and PB Varale adjourned the matter due to the unavailability of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.
The top court had earlier asked the Center whether there was any possibility of the government reconsidering Wangchuk’s detention considering his health condition.
Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj had stated that Wangchuk was responsible for the violence in Leh on September 24 last year, in which four people died and 161 were injured.
The Center and the Ladakh administration had told the top court that Wangchuk was arrested for provoking people in a border area where regional sensitivity was at stake.
Justifying Wangchuk’s arrest, Mehta had told the bench that all procedural safeguards were followed while ordering his arrest under the National Security Act (NSA).
The NSA empowers the Center and states to detain individuals to prevent them from behaving in a manner “prejudicial to the defense of India”. The maximum period of detention is 12 months, but it can be canceled earlier.
The center had said that Wangchuk was trying to provoke Generation Z for protests similar to those in Nepal and Bangladesh.
Wangchuk even talked about an Arab Spring-like agitation that led to the overthrow of many governments in countries in the Arab world, Mehta said.
Wangchuk, who was held in Jodhpur Central Jail on January 29, denied allegations that he made a statement aimed at overthrowing the government, such as the Arab Spring, and emphasized that he had the democratic right to criticize and protest.
Angmo’s senior lawyer Kapil Sibal alleged that the police relied on “borrowed material” and selective videos to mislead the custodial authority.
Angmo described Wangchuk’s detention as illegal and arbitrary in violation of his fundamental rights.
Wangchuk was detained on September 26 last year, two days after violent protests demanding Ladakh’s statehood and Sixth Schedule status led to four deaths in the Union territory.
The government accused him of inciting violence.
The plea said it was completely “unreasonable” for Wangchuk to be suddenly targeted after more than three decades of recognition at the state, national and international levels for his contributions to grassroots education, innovation and environmental conservation in Ladakh and across India.
Angmo claimed that the unfortunate incidents of violence in Leh on September 24 last year could in no way be attributed to Wangchuk’s actions or statements.
Angmo said Wangchuk himself had condemned the violence through social media posts and categorically said that violence would lead to the failure of Ladakh’s “tapasya” and its five-year peaceful quest, adding that it was the “saddest day” of his life.
