Supreme Court Adjourns Hearing on Plea against Sonam Wangchuk's Detention under NSA till October 29
The Supreme Court on Tuesday, October 14, 2025, postponed the hearing of a critical plea against the detention of iconic Ladakh-based climate activist and educationist Sonam Wangchuk under the strict National Security Act (NSA). The plea, submitted by Wangchuk's wife, Gitanjali J. Angmo, calls for his release and challenges the constitutional validity and reasons for the detention.
The two-judge bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice NV Anjaria listed the case for hearing on Wednesday, October 15, 2025 (today), on grounds of a 'paucity of time' to hear the case on the given date. The adjournment is such that the activist, who is better known for his cause of environmental activism and for having inspired the Hindi film 3 Idiots, is in preventive custody for a minimum of another day. Today, the top court adjourned the petition till October 29, 2025. The same was decided after noting that the petitioner’s counsel expressed the desire to amend the petition.
Earlier, on October 6, the top court had served notices to both the Central Government and the Union Territory of Ladakh, asking them to respond to the charges made in the petition. But the court had then declined to issue any interim order asking the authorities to produce the grounds of detention forthwith to the petitioner, one of the main reliefs that Ms. Angmo was seeking.
The case arose out of the mass upsurge in the Union Territory. Wangchuk had been arrested under the NSA on September 26, 2025, two days after clashes had broken out violently in Leh. The protests were a part of an ongoing agitation by local organizations for statehood and constitutional safeguards under the Sixth Schedule to Ladakh for protecting Ladakh's tribal culture and ecosystem. The clashes had the unfortunate consequence of resulting in the deaths of four civilians and injuring scores of security forces personnel and civilians alike. Wangchuk has since been accused of instigating violence by the Ladakh administration and, in their communications, they had alleged he had proposed actions such as "self-immolation" to protesters along the lines of Tibet protests, which they argue posed a serious danger to public order.
Detention under the NSA, which allows preventive custody for one year without charges, has come under scathing attack from civil liberties organizations and opposition parties. Wangchuk, who has been detained at the Jodhpur Central Jail, has allegedly sent a message through his lawyers demanding an independent judiciary-led probe into the civilian deaths during the September 24 violence. His wife's petition questions the state's application of such a harsh detention law against a well-known activist whose sole means of protest was a prolonged hunger strike. The high-profile case is being monitored closely, as it highlights the increasing tension between demands from the local population for democratic and constitutional protections in Ladakh and the central government's reaction to dissent. The Wednesday proceedings are likely to dwell on the government's formal explanation for using the NSA.
