His health is not good; is it possible to relook at Sonam Wangchuk's detention, Supreme Court asks Centre
The Bench said it would take up the matter on Thursday
The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought to know from the Centre whether there was any possibility of relooking at the detention of climate activist Sonam Wangchuk in view of his health condition.
“Apart from submissions, counter submissions and law points, just give a thought to it, as an officer of the Court. The detention order is passed on September 26, 2025, nearly five months. Considering the health condition of the detainee...the report which we saw earlier, it shows that his health is not that good. There are certain age-related, may be otherwise. Is there a possibility for the government to rethink or even relook,” a Bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice PB Varale told Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj.
The ASG said that he would convey the suggestion to the authorities concerned. He alleged that Wangchuk was responsible for violence in Leh last year, in which four people were killed and 161 were injured.
“It was ultimately his provocative speech, provocation, instigation. The person need not actively participate, the propensity of a person to influence a group of persons...that is more than sufficient,” Nataraj said, contending that the order of Wangchuk’s detention was approved on October 3, 2025, and that there was no challenge to the approval order. The Bench said it would take up the matter on Thursday.
The activist was detained on September 26, 2025, under Section 3(2) of the National Security Act (NSA), two days after protests demanding Ladakh’s statehood and Sixth Schedule status turned violent, leaving four persons dead and nearly 100 injured.
Detained under the NSA at Jodhpur Central Jail since September 26 last year, Wangchuk had, on January 29, denied exhorting his supporters to overthrow the government like the Arab Spring and asserted his democratic right to criticise and protest.
The Centre and the Union Territory of Ladakh administration had on Tuesday sought to justify before the Supreme Court activist Sonam Wangchuk’s detention under the NSA, 1980, stating that he was detained for instigating people in a sensitive border area.
“This court is dealing with a person who is instigating people in a border area, adjacent to Pakistan and China, where regional sensitivity is involved,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had told the Bench.
Mehta asserted that all procedural safeguards were followed while ordering Wangchuk’s detention under the NSA and that he had been given fair treatment, as all provisions of the Act were scrupulously complied with.
On Monday, he had alleged that Wangchuk attempted to instigate the younger generation of Ladakhis to launch Gen-Z movements similar to those in neighbouring Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka if the demand for the Sixth Schedule was denied to Ladakh.
Wangchuk’s wife, Gitanjali Angmo, has challenged his detention, terming it “illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional”, and stating 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.
