NEW DELHI, Oct 3:
Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk’s wife Gitanjali J Angmo has filed a plea in the Supreme Court challenging his detention under the National Security Act and seeking his immediate release.
Follow the Daily Excelsior channel on WhatsApp
Wangchuk was detained under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) on September 26, two days after protests demanding Statehood and Sixth Schedule status for Ladakh left four people dead and 90 injured in the Union Territory. He is lodged in Jodhpur jail in Rajasthan.
Angmo, in her plea filed through senior lawyer Vivek Tankha and lawyer Sarvam Ritam Khare, has also questioned the decision to invoke the NSA against Wangchuk.
Filing the habeas corpus (bring the person) writ, the spouse of the detained activist has sought urgent listing of the petition and a direction to the Ladakh Union Territory administration to “produce Sonam Wangchuk before this Court forthwith.”
It also sought immediate access to the detenue, and quashing of the preventive detention order.
The plea, which has made the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ladakh UT administration, Deputy Commissioner of Leh and Jodhpur jail Superintendent as parties, has also sought a direction to them to “allow immediate access of the petitioner to her husband, both telephonic and in person”.
The plea alleged that Wangchuk’s detention was “illegal, arbitrary, and unconstitutional”, violating fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 19, 21 and 22.
“Wangchuk, who has been an internationally acclaimed innovator, environmentalist, and social reformer, has always espoused Gandhian and peaceful methods to highlight the ecological and democratic concerns of Ladakh,” it said. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
