SC Seeks Centre’s Response On Plea Challenging Sonam’s Detention

On Wednesday the Supreme Court requested BJP government at the Centre and administration at Ladakh to respond to an amended petition requesting cancellation of the detention order of Sonam Wangchuk within 10 days.

The wife of Wangchuk ( Gitanjali Angmo ) who filed the amended petition said, "We have submitted a 300 page document that includes a 100 page petition and 200 annexures wherein we have rebutted point- by-point detention order of my husband.”

“The Supreme Court has given 10 days to the Centre and Ladakh administration to respond to our petition. Subsequently, a week’s time has been given to us for filing counter to their response,” she added.

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Because these two processes would take 17 to 18 days, she informed, the next date of hearing would be set by the Supreme Court as November 24.

Gitanjali also informed that she will be meeting with her jailed husband in Jodhpur central jail on Thursday. “Since the Centre has resumed talks with the Leh Apex Body and Kargil Democratic Alliance, Sonam Wangchuk has asked us to stay firm on our two core demands of statehood and Sixth Schedule,” she said.

The amended plea was to be filed before a bench of justices Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria, which requested Solicitor General Tushar Mehta representing the Centre and the UT of Ladakh to bring the filed response.

The bench also permitted senior advocate Kapil Sibal who is representing Wangchuk to make rejoinder, should there be one.

On October 15, the Apex Court had adjourned the hearing on a plea by Gitanjali who wanted to submit an amended petition which carried more grounds to raise an appeal over the detention order of her husband climate activist Sonam Wangchuk.

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Gitanjali remembered that there were several events that had occurred in the previous year and half before the statehood and Sixth Schedule, long before the September violence, which formed the basis of the order of detention of Wangchuk. She remembered that an old video of June this year was also used as one of the grounds that her husband had to be detained.

“In June, when talks (with Centre) failed, my husband talked about statehood being a tough road ahead and if someone has to sacrifice his life for the cause, it would be Wangchuk. However, the detention order stated that he was inciting people of Ladakh for self-immolation,” she said.

She alleged that reasons given in the detention order were weak and were made up to frame her husband.

Two days after violent demonstrations on September 26 that demanded statehood and Sixth Schedule status of Ladakh had resulted in the deaths of four people and almost 100 others in Leh town, Wangchuk was arrested under the harsh National Security Act (NSA).

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