New Delhi: The government of India has revoked the preventive detention of Ladakh activist Sonam Wangchuk under the National Security Act while a habeas corpus petition challenging his detention was pending before the Supreme Court of India.
The decision came ahead of a scheduled hearing in the top court on March 17 by a bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice P B Varale.
Background of the case
Wangchuk was detained on September 26, 2025, by the Leh District Magistrate after protests in Ladakh demanding statehood allegedly turned violent. Authorities claimed he was engaging in activities “prejudicial to national security.”
Following his detention, he was shifted to Jodhpur Central Jail.
His wife, Dr Gitanjali Angmo, approached the Supreme Court on October 3, 2025, seeking a writ of habeas corpus and challenging the legality of the detention.
Court raises questions during hearings
During the hearings, the Supreme Court raised several questions to the government of India regarding the justification for Wangchuk’s preventive detention.
The bench urged the GoI to reconsider the detention on medical grounds after reviewing a health report that suggested Wangchuk’s condition was not good. However, the government maintained that he was receiving adequate medical care and refused to release him.
The Court also questioned the government’s interpretation of Wangchuk’s speeches, which authorities alleged had encouraged unrest and invoked examples such as the Arab Spring and protests in Nepal and Bangladesh.
Justice Kumar remarked that the GoI appeared to be “reading too much” into the activist’s statements, while Justice Varale observed that Wangchuk had actually expressed concern about young people abandoning Gandhian methods of protest.
Dispute over evidence
Another issue raised before the court involved four videos cited in the detention order. Wangchuk claimed he had not been given proper access to the videos relied upon by authorities to justify his detention.
The bench asked whether there was proof that he had actually viewed the videos while in custody and sought the pendrive containing the material to be produced before the court in a sealed cover.
Questions over speech translations
The court also flagged concerns over the accuracy of translations of Wangchuk’s speeches submitted by the government, noting significant discrepancies between the original speeches and the translated transcripts.
The bench stressed that translations relied upon for a detention order must accurately reflect the original statements.
Detention revoked
Before the next hearing could take place, the GoI revoked Wangchuk’s detention, noting that he had already spent nearly half of the maximum permissible detention period under the NSA.
