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Informist, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Centre on a plea by activist Sonam Wangchuk's wife Gitanjali J. Angmo, challenging his detention under the National Security Act. Wangchuk, who has been at the forefront of the demand for statehood for Ladakh and its inclusion in the 6th Schedule of the Indian Constitution, was arrested on Sept. 26. He is currently detained at a prison in Rajasthan's Jodhpur.

 

Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Kapil Sibal said that the grounds of detention should be served on Angmo. However, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said that the grounds of detention were given to Wangchuk and there was no legal requirement that it would have to be supplied to his wife. On the petitioner's interim prayer for giving the grounds of detention to Angmo, the top court refused to pass any order. 

 

Sibal also said that the petitioner should be allowed to meet Wangchuk, but the court refused to agree, as she had not made any formal request with police authorities to meet her husband. On a request that Wangchuk should be given medical support, Mehta said Wangchuk had said he was not under any medication and if any medical supplies were needed, they should be given.

 

Mehta said the petitioner was trying to create a "hype" and an "emotive issue" that Wangchuk was denied medical relief and meetings with his wife. "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," said Mehta.

 

After approaching the apex court last week, Angmo said in a post on social media platform X, "I have sought relief from the Supreme Court of India through a habeas corpus petition against Wangchuk'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."

  

The Ladakh administration has accused Wangchuk of suggesting "self-immolation" to the people of Ladakh on "multiple occasions" on the "lines of protests in Tibet". "Sonam Wangchuk had suggested 'overthrow' of the government on lines of 'Arab Spring', if their demands were not met, besides putting forth the idea of self-immolation for instigating agitation for this purpose, as happened in Arab countries, including Tunisia. On multiple occasions, he suggested self-immolation by Ladakhis on lines of protests in Tibet," the administration said. 

 

The administration has blamed Wangchuk for the violence in Leh city on Sept. 26, which left four people dead and around 150 injured. It said that even though other apex body leaders in Leh, including elders, rushed to pacify the aggressive crowd, Wangchuk remained at the site of the hunger strike. "If elderly leaders could realise the gravity of the situation and try to pacify the mob, there is no reason why Mr. Wangchuk could not have done the same, if he really desired peace" said the administration.

 

Angmo had said that her husband was being projected as an "anti-national" as part of a "witch-hunt", so that the movement for the 6th Schedule could be weakened. Angmo's remarks followed the Leh Police's mention of Wangchuk's visit to Pakistan, and an allegation that he had links with the neighbouring country. 

 

The Sixth Schedule provides for the formation of autonomous administrative divisions that have some legislative, judicial, and administrative autonomy within a state. These divisions can make laws, rules and regulations with regard to land, forest, water, agriculture, village councils, health, sanitation, village- and town-level policing, inheritance, marriage and divorce, social customs and mining. Currently, the Sixth Schedule applies to the northeastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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