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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is set to hear on Monday a plea filed by Sonam Wangchuk’s wife, Gitanjali J Angmo. The plea challenges the climate activist’s detention under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) as illegal and an arbitrary exercise violating his fundamental rights.The matter will be heard before a bench comprising Justices Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria. The top court had earlier, on October 29, sought responses from the Centre and the Ladakh administration on the amended plea filed by Angmo.Wangchuk was detained on September 26, two days after violent protests in Leh demanding statehood and Sixth Schedule status for Ladakh resulted in four deaths and over 90 injuries. Authorities have alleged that Wangchuk incited the unrest. He was transferred to a jail in Jodhpur, Rajasthan and booked under the NSA, which allows preventive detention of individuals deemed a threat to national security for a maximum of 12 months.The amended plea filed by Gitanjali Angmo contends that Wangchuk’s detention is “founded upon stale FIRs, vague imputations, and speculative assertions, lacks any live or proximate connection to the purported grounds of detention and is thus devoid of any legal or factual justification”. The plea further highlights that Wangchuk, a recognized educator and climate activist for over three decades, has been subjected to a series of coordinated actions including notices for land lease cancellation, FCRA cancellation, a CBI investigation and summons from the Income Tax Department. According to the petition, these actions appear to be aimed at silencing a citizen exercising his democratic right to dissent rather than addressing genuine security concerns.The petition also highlights Wangchuk’s condemnation of the violence on social media. It quotes him saying it was “the saddest day of his life” and that such unrest would undermine Ladakh’s ongoing five-year peaceful pursuit, or “tapasya,” for development.Moreover, the plea points out that the complete grounds of Wangchuk’s detention were only supplied after 28 days. This, it says, is in clear violation of Section 8 of the NSA, which mandates communication within five days, extendable to ten in exceptional circumstances.Earlier, on October 6, the Supreme Court had issued notice to the Centre and Ladakh administration on a habeas corpus plea filed by Gitanjali Angmo, seeking Wangchuk’s immediate release.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the government, maintained that “law has been followed and grounds of detention supplied to Wangchuk.” However, the bench refused to pass any order on providing the grounds at the time and posted the matter for further hearing.Gitanjali Angmo has also approached President Droupadi Murmu seeking intervention, alleging a “witch-hunt” against her husband for advocating the people of Ladakh and raising concerns over police actions in the Union Territory after the September 24 violence. She compared the situation to colonial-era oppression, claiming misuse of Ladakh police by the Union home ministry.”Is India really free? In 1857, 24,000 Britishers used 135,000 Indian sepoys to oppress 300 million Indians under orders from the Queen. Today, a dozen administrators are misusing 2400 Ladakhi police to oppress and torture 3 lakh Ladakhis under the orders of the MHA,” Gitanjali wrote on X.
