New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday, October 29, asked the Union government and the Ladakh administration to respond within ten days to detained climate activist Sonam Wangchuk's wife Gitanjali J. Angmo's plea on his behalf.

On Wednesday, Angmo requested the court that she would file an amended plea, based on the fact that she has gained access to the grounds for Wangchuk's detention. The court granted her a week, and said the Union government and Ladakh government would have ten days more to respond to that.

Angmo's lawyer, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, was granted leave by the court to also file a rejoinder to the government's response.

Thereafter, the court would consider the matter on November 24.

Angmo's latest petition says that Wangchuk's "detention order and grounds of detention are ex facie unsustainable in law as they are premised upon irrelevant grounds, stale FIRs, extraneous material, self-serving statements and suppression of information," Live Law reported.

"Leave of this court sought to amend the petition to place on record additional facts, documents and grounds. Petitioner permitted to amend the petition and file the amended copy within a week and amended counter to be filed within ten days thereafter. Rejoinder if any within a week thereafter. List on November 24," a bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N.V. Anjaria ruled while accepting Angmo's plea, Bar & Bench reported.

"There is thus no clear, live, proximate or intelligible connection between the FIRs and the preventive detention of Wangchuk under the NSA, 1980,” the application stated, according to the New Indian Express.

Earlier, Angmo had approached the court seeking the grounds under which Wangchuk had been detained.

Live Law reports that Angmo's latest petition claims that of the five FIRs on whose basis Wangchuk was detained, three are over a year old and none level any allegation against him nor specifically mention his name. The petition calls the detention order grossly illegal and arbitrary, according to Live Law.

A fourth FIR – registered against Wangchuk after he joined the Leh Apex Body earlier this year – does mention him by name, but Angmo's plea says it "pertains to completely different facts", the legal website reports.

The Ladakhi activist has been lodged in Jodhpur Central Jail under the stringent National Security Act (NSA), 1980, since September 26. He was detained soon after a protest in Ladakh, seeking statehood and greater economic autonomy, had escalated into clashes.

The Ladakh Union territory administration considers Wangchuk responsible for the clashes that occurred during those protests. Around 90 were injured and four died, including a Ladakh Scouts retiree, in the clashes.

Angmo had earlier petitioned the Supreme Court soon after Wangchuk's detention. The court had on October 6, issued notices to the Union government and the Union territory of Ladakh, the Times of India has reported. She had then sought the reasons for his detention, but the court had not passed any order on that issue.

In an earlier hearing, Sibal had requested the court to permit Angmo to exchange notes with Wangchuk, which Mehta had not opposed.

The NSA is more stringent than ordinary laws, for instance by allowing the custody of suspects for up to 12 months.

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