In a dramatic legal turn in the wake of recent unrest in Ladakh, Gitanjali Angmo — the wife of climate activist and educational reformer Sonam Wangchuk — has petitioned the Supreme Court seeking his immediate release. She has challenged his detention under the National Security Act (NSA), calling it “arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional.”
Wangchuk was detained on September 26, two days after violent protests in Leh that resulted in four deaths and dozens injured during demonstrations demanding statehood and constitutional safeguards for Ladakh. He is currently held in a central jail in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.
In her habeas corpus petition, Angmo argues her husband’s fundamental rights under the Constitution — including rights to equality, freedom, life and legal protection — have been breached by the detention order. She claims she has not been provided the grounds of his detention, nor allowed contact with him. She also alleges that she has been placed under virtual house arrest in Leh and that staff and students associated with Wangchuk’s Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh (HIAL), have faced harassment and intrusive investigations.
The petition demands that authorities present Wangchuk before the Supreme Court immediately, quash the preventive detention order, and provide full access to his medical records, personal belongings, and communication. It also seeks to compel the authorities to furnish the grounds on which his detention was ordered and to expedite the case for a hearing.
The Ladakh administration has rejected allegations that Wangchuk is being targeted, dismissing claims of political vendetta or a “smokescreen” operation. Meanwhile, protestors and civil society figures continue to demand his release, seeing the case as emblematic of broader tensions over governance, autonomy, and dissent in Ladakh.
The Supreme Court is currently in recess for Dussehra and is expected to reconvene from October 6. At that point, legal teams are likely to push for urgent listing and interim orders in response to the petition.
As the legal battle unfolds, Wangchuk’s detention has sharpened focus on issues of preventive detention, activist rights, and the approach of state institutions toward dissent in Union Territories without legislative governance.