SC notice to Centre, Ladakh Admn on Sonam Wangchuk's wife Angmo’s petition against his detention

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Centre, the 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), 1980.

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A Bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice NV Anjaria, which also issued notice to Jodhpur Jail Administration, posted the matter for further hearing on October 14.

Detained on September 26 under Section 3(2) of the NSA, two days after the September 24 violent clashes between protesters demanding statehood and Sixth Schedule status for Ladakh and the police, Wangchuk was lodged in Jodhpur jail in Rajasthan.

Four people had died and 90 others were injured in the clashes in the newly created Union Territory of Ladakh.

Terming it “illegal, arbitrary, and unconstitutional”, Angmo has 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 behalf of Angimo, senior advocate Kapil Sibal demanded that the grounds of detention should be served on her. Without the grounds of detention, the detention order cannot be challenged, he submitted.

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

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

Mehta accused Angimo 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 that on being produced for medical examination, the detenu said he was not 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.

Angimo has questioned the Ladakh Administration’s decision to invoke the NSA against Wangchuk.  Wangchuk’s wife alleged that she has not been given a copy of the detention order in violation of rules, and that she had had no contact so far with her husband.

The Ladakh Administration has rejected allegations of a “witch-hunt” or a “smokescreen” operation against Wangchuk.

In her habeas corpus petition, Angmo sought a direction to the Ladakh Union Territory Administration to “produce Sonam Wangchuk before this Hon’ble Court forthwith.”

Demanding immediate access to the detenu (Wangchuk), she urged the top court to quash the preventive detention order. She also sought urgent listing of her petition.

She has sought a direction to the authorities concerned to “allow immediate access of the petitioner to her husband, both telephonic and in person”.

Alleging that no grounds of detention have been furnished till date, either to Wangchuk or to his family, his wife contended that she had been kept under virtual house arrest in Leh, while students and staff of the 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 Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh (HIAL), the virtual house arrest of the petitioner herself, and the false propaganda linking Shri Wangchuk to foreign entities clearly demonstrate mala fide state action intended to suppress democratic dissent and peaceful environmental activism,” she submitted.

The arrest has inflicted severe mental pain and anguish on the people of Ladakh, who revered Wangchuk as their leader, the petition stated. “A recent tragic incident has been reported where a member of the Ladakh Buddhist Association committed suicide, allegedly depressed after his detention, underscoring the devastating psychological impact on the community,” the petition alleged.

Angmo sought a direction to the authorities to ensure that Wangchuk was provided with his medicines, clothes, food and other basic necessities forthwith. She also sought a direction to them to place before the top court “the order of detention along with grounds of detention and all records pertaining thereto” as also his medical report.