Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk’s wife Gitanjali J. Angmo has filed a plea in the Supreme Court challenging his detention under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) as “illegal, unconstitutional and arbitrary” and seeking his immediate release.
The plea was filed on Thursday evening in the form of a habeas corpus petition under Article 32, which empowers citizens to seek a court direction to the authorities to produce a person physically before it as their whereabouts are not known.
“I have sought relief from the Supreme Court of India through a habeas corpus petition against@Wangchuk66’s detention. It is one week today. Still I have no information about Sonam Wangchuk’s health, the condition he is in nor the grounds of detention,” Gitanjali posted on X.
In the plea filed through lawyers Vivek Tankha and Sarvam Ritam Khare, Gitanjali has questioned the decision to invoke the NSA against Wangchuk.
The NSA empowers authorities to detain a person in custody without a formal trial for up to one year. Initially, the person can be detained for three months, which can be extended following an approval from an advisory board constituted under the Act.
The petition is likely to be mentioned for “urgent hearing” on Monday when the apex court reopens after a week’s Dussehra recess.
Wangchuk was arrested and detained under the NSA on September 26, two days after protests demanding statehood and Sixth Schedule status for Ladakh left four people dead and 90 injured in the Union Territory.
The government has blamed Wangchuk and some Pakistani elements for fomenting trouble. However, Wangchuk, currently lodged in Jodhpur Central Jail, and his supporters have denied the allegations and blamed the government for its crackdown and the death of four people.
Earlier, civil liberty organisations such as the Assam Nagarik Samaj had sought Wangchuk’s release, asserting that he was a “national treasure, leading a peaceful movement to secure autonomy, cultural preservation, and environmental protection for Ladakh”.
Gitanjali had also written to President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, seeking her husband’s release as he had adopted a “Gandhian” form of protest to advocate for climate change action and the development of Ladakh’s backward tribal regions.