Gitanjali Angmo, wife of climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, is challenging his detention under the National Security Act (NSA), asserting that it is arbitrary and based on irrelevant grounds. Wangchuk, a 52-year-old Ladakhi activist, was detained on September 26 and is currently lodged in Jodhpur Central Jail in Rajasthan. The detention followed violent protests in Ladakh concerning demands for statehood and the region's inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has accused Wangchuk of inciting the violence.
Angmo has filed an amended application before the Supreme Court, including additional grounds to challenge the detention order. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Angmo's petition on November 24. A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N. V. Anjaria granted Angmo permission to amend her plea. They directed the Centre and the Union Territory of Ladakh to submit their responses.
In her application, Angmo argues that the detention order suffers from "gross illegality and arbitrariness". She claims it relies on stale, irrelevant, and extraneous First Information Reports (FIRs). According to Angmo, three of the five FIRs cited pertain to 2024 and lack a direct connection to Wangchuk's detention in September 2025. Furthermore, she points out that four out of the five FIRs, including three against 'unknown persons', do not even mention Wangchuk's name.
Angmo contends that there is no clear or intelligible connection between the FIRs and Wangchuk's detention under the NSA of 1980. She argues that the detention is not based on genuine concerns about public order or security. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Angmo, submitted that the amended petition includes additional grounds challenging the validity of the detention order.
Angmo has also raised concerns about procedural lapses in her husband's detention. She claims that the complete grounds for his detention were supplied to him after a delay of 28 days, violating the statutory timeline prescribed under Section 8 of the NSA. She also states that Wangchuk was not present at the site where the violence took place on September 24, 2025, and that he immediately tried to stop the violence upon learning about it.
Moreover, Angmo questions why she was not allowed to speak with her husband, either by phone or in person, after his arrest. She also disputes the decision to invoke the NSA against him, calling his arrest illegal and a violation of rules. Angmo asserts that Wangchuk only participated in peaceful Gandhian protests within Ladakh, exercising his constitutional right to free speech and assembly. She says that the charges against him are baseless and aimed at discrediting his peaceful movement to protect Ladakh's ecology. She also stated that Wangchuk never made any provocative speech and had merely undertaken a peaceful hunger strike in support of Ladakh's demand for statehood.
The plea also alleges a systematic campaign against Wangchuk, falsely linking him to Pakistan and China. Angmo says that the complete detention order was supplied to Wangchuk after a significant delay and that he was not provided with four videos referenced in the detention grounds until a day before the Advisory Board hearing.
