SC to hear plea today against Sonam Wangchuk’s detention, seeks original speech recordings

New Delhi, Feb 19 (IANS) The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Thursday a petition filed by Geetanjali Angmo, wife of Ladakhi social activist Sonam Wangchuk, challenging his detention and seeking his release.

Earlier this week, the apex court questioned the Centre regarding the accuracy of the translated transcripts of speeches attributed to the jailed climate activist.

On Monday, the court directed that the original pen drive supplied to Wangchuk at the time of his arrest in September 2025 be produced before it by Thursday.

The direction came on the penultimate day of hearings in the plea filed by Angmo, who has contended that her husband’s detention suffers from procedural lapses.

She has argued that Wangchuk was not properly informed of the grounds of his arrest and that his speeches delivered over the past few years have been misrepresented to suggest that he incited the violence in September last year, which resulted in four deaths and injuries to hundreds.

A bench comprising Justices Aravind Kumar and PB Varale took note of what it described as a “variance” between the original speeches and the translated versions placed on record. “What is there in the speech, there should not be any variance. The petitioner and the state may differ on interpretation, but we have to be ad idem on the text of the speech,” the bench observed.

Referring to the translations furnished by the detaining authority, the court remarked, “The translation (provided in English by the detaining authority) goes for 7-8 minutes, but the speech (in Ladakhi) is for 3 minutes where he says stop the violence…We are in an era of artificial intelligence. Precision is only 98 per cent, at least for translations.”

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Wangchuk, submitted that certain statements attributed to the activist do not appear in the tabular chart presented by the authorities before the court. “This is a unique detention order. You rely on something that does not exist,” he argued.

The bench responded by stating, “We want an actual transcript of speeches. We find that what is in your (Sibal) text and what they (authorities) refer to is different.”

The matter was posted for Thursday to allow Sibal to conclude his submissions.

During the proceedings, the court also asked Sibal whether it was correct that four video clips containing the allegedly objectionable speeches were shared with Wangchuk at the time of his arrest. The issue assumed significance after Additional Solicitor General K.M. Nataraj, appearing for the Centre, informed the court that the videos had been shown to Wangchuk before he was taken into custody.

The hearing was then scheduled for Thursday.

–IANS

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