SC issues notice to Centre, Ladakh admn on Wangchuk’s NSA detention

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Centre, Ladakh administration and others on climate activist Sonam Wangchuk’s wife Gitanjali Angmo’s petition seeking his immediate release from detention under the National Security Act (NSA).

A Bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice NV Anjaria, which also issued notice to the administration of Jodhpur jail where Wangchuk is lodged, posted the matter for further hearing on October 14. The activist was detained on September 26 under Section 3(2) of the NSA, two days after protests demanding Ladakh’s statehood and the Sixth Schedule status turned violent, leaving four persons dead and nearly 100 injured.

Terming the detention “illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional”, Angmo contended that the detention order violated her husband’s fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14 (right to equality), 19 (right to various freedoms), 21 (right to life and liberty) and 22 (Protection against arrest and detention in certain cases) of the Constitution.

On Angmo’s behalf, senior advocate Kapil Sibal demanded that the grounds of detention should be served on her as without it, the order could not be challenged.

However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Bench the grounds of detention had already been served on Wangchuk, and that there was no legal requirement for it to be communicated to his wife. He, however, agreed to examine the feasibility of serving the grounds to Angmo.

Regarding Sibal’s request for allowing Wangchuk’s wife to meet him, the Bench said no such order could be passed as she had made no formal request. “First, make a request and if it’s rejected, then approach the court,” the Bench said.

Mehta accused Angmo of trying to create a “hype” and making it an “emotive issue” by alleging that her husband was denied medical aid and meetings with his wife.

On the issue of medical aid, Mehta said on being produced for medical examination, the detainee denied he was on any medication. He, however, assured the Bench that if any medical supplies were needed, they would be ensured. “This is all just to portray in the media and in that region that he is deprived of medicines and access to wife. Just to create an emotive atmosphere. That’s all,” Mehta said.

Angmo has questioned the Ladakh administration’s decision to invoke the NSA against Wangchuk. She alleged that she was not given a copy of the detention order in violation of rules, and that she had had no contact so far with her husband. The administration, however, rejected the allegations of a “witch-hunt” or a “smokescreen” operation against Wangchuk.

In her habeas corpus petition, Angmo sought a direction to the administration to “produce Wangchuk before the top court forthwith”. She demanded immediate access to the detainee and urged the top court to quash the preventive detention order.

Alleging that no grounds of detention had been furnished till date, either to Wangchuk or to his family, his wife contended that she was kept under virtual house arrest in Leh, while students and staff of Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh (HIAL), founded by Wangchuk, were facing “harassment, intimidation and intrusive investigations”.

“The arbitrary transfer of Wangchuk to Jodhpur, the harassment of students and staff of the HIAL, virtual house arrest of the petitioner herself and the false propaganda linking Wangchuk to foreign entities clearly demonstrate mala fide state action intended to suppress democratic dissent and peaceful environmental activism,” she submitted.