SC to watch videos of Wangchuk’s speeches, reserves order

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would watch videos of Sonam Wangchuk’s speeches this week and reserved its order on March 17 on a plea filed by the jailed climate activist’s wife, Gitanjali J Angmo, challenging his detention under the National Security Act (NSA). A bench of justices Aravind Kumar and PB Varale said the judges would watch the videos this Thursday and they have requested the registrar to make arrangements for the screening.

“The judges will be watching the videos on Thursday. First, we will watch the videos independently and then both judges will watch the videos together,” Justice Kumar said. Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, appearing for the Centre and Union Territory of Ladakh administration, said Solicitor General Tushar Mehta was unwell and had requested the adjournment of the hearing in the matter.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Angmo, said that frequent adjournments in the matter was sending a “wrong signal” in the country.

The bench said it is posting the matter for final hearing on next Tuesday (March 17) and made it clear that whatever happens on that day, the court will be reserving its decision.

“We are making it absolutely clear that no matter what, we will be reserving our decision on next Tuesday after the final hearing. We will not allow any new points to be argued and the Solicitor General can only argue the new points raised by Mr. Sibal in his rejoinder arguments,” Justice Kumar said.

Earlier, Mehta had sought to address the issue raised by the bench regarding the translations of Wangchuk’s speeches.  During rejoinder arguments, Sibal had pointed out that the alleged inciteful statements attributed to Wangchuk in the detention order did not find mention in the chart of translated speeches produced by the Centre.

Sibal had argued that the detention order was based on non-existent material, and Wangchuk had never stated that he wanted to “overthrow” the Government.

The top court had earlier asked the Centre if there was any possibility for the Government to have a relook at the detention of Wangchuk, considering his health condition.

Nataraj had submitted that Wangchuk was responsible for violence in Leh on September 24 last year, in which four people died, and 161 were injured.

The Centre and the Ladakh administration had told the apex court that Wangchuk was detained for instigating people in a border area where regional sensitivity was involved.