Sonam Wangchuk hunger strike LIVE: Delhi HC declines interim relief on plea by Wangchuk's wife seeking transfer from Safdarjung Hospital
Follow the Hindu's LIVE updates as Cockroach Janta Party continues protests as Sonam Wangchuk refuses treatment despite counselling
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Delhi HC declines interim relief on plea by Wangchuk's wife seeking transfer from Safdarjung Hospital
Updated - July 19, 2026 05:11 pm IST
Gitanjali Angmo addresses a press meet outside Safdarjung Hospital on July 19, 2026.
The Delhi High Court declined interim relief on the plea by Gitanjali Angmo, Sonam Wangchuk’s wife seeking his transfer from Safdarjung Hospital to a hospital of his choice. The Court accepted the Centre’s stand that shifting him to Safdarjung was a medical decision, not an arbitrary one.
Earlier, Ms. Angmo had said she has “lost faith” in Safdarjung hospital and wants to move the activist to a private facility of her choice before his health further deteriorates.
Also Read: Sonam Wangchuk | Fast and composed
Meanwhile, Mr. Wangchuk described the proposed July 20 Parliament march as India’s “second freedom movement”, calling for “freedom from fear” and “freedom from injustice” while urging supporters to make the mobilisation a “big success”.
The Cockroach Janta Party continued overnight protests on Sunday (July 19, 2026) at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar against the BJP government, demanding Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation.
Here are Sonam Wangchuk’s hunger strike updates from July 18
Mr. Wangchuk was forcibly taken to Safdarjung hospital on Saturday by the Delhi Police as CJP’s founder Abhijeet Dipke sat on an indefinite hunger strike against the activist’s ‘kidnapping’. Mr. Dipke warned earlier that the Delhi Police “is planning to crackdown on our protest during night or early hours of morning - silencing the voice of youth”.
Delhi HC declined interim relief on the plea by Sonam Wangchuk’s wife seeking his transfer from Safdarjung Hospital to a hospital of his choice.
The Court noted that Mr. Wangchuk has been on a hunger strike for 17–18 days and that his medical condition is “perilous.”
It accepted the Centre’s stand that shifting him to Safdarjung was a medical decision, not an arbitrary one. The Court recorded that his potassium levels are dangerously low, medicines have been administered with his consent, IV fluids have not been given as he has not consented.
Ahead of the planned protest march on July 20, Sonam Wangchuk’s wife Gitanjali Angmo says: “Sonam’s message to everyone is that even in his absence we must go with double the enthusiasm and four times the numbers.”
“The way he has been advocating people to demonstrate peacefully, I’ll tell everyone two things: march peacefully and watch out for nefarious disruptive elements. They will try to colour the protest. But over the last 22 days students have shown that Gen Z protests peacefully.”
“If a man is fasting - and today is his 22nd day - he has fasted 35 days in Ladakh. His health is fine. There was no need for government intervention,” Gitanjali Angmo tells mediapersons as she speaks following a Delhi HC hearing which denied shifting her husband, activist Sonam Wangchuk, from Safdarjung Hospital.
“The PIL was interpreted wrongly,” she says adding that they will be appealing tomorrow, “to rectify the errors in the order today.”
“We wanted to shift him to Medanta and other hospital. This is fundamental right,” Ms. Angmo says, pointing out that they were exercising their right of comfort and choice. “There’s a trust deficit in this country. People don’t trust govt institutions. The 10 hour wait for the sample shows that. We don’t want a hospital with 30-40 police, water cannons... Sonam has every day had blood pressure of ~110/70. At hospital it was 125/85 due to the police presence,” Ms. Angmo says.
“Sonam wanted that he wanted to continue the fast. They have been asking him to have fluids but he didn’t have. He’s having water,” she says in response to a question regarding the current status of the activist.
“We know govt took him [Wangchuk] here [Safdarjung Hospital] because they were afraid that if he led a protest many people would come,” Gitanjali Angmo, activist Sonam Wangchuk’s wife told the media.
“But in his absence those numbers will double,” she added.
“May everyone join the march. Education is the foundation for the country. If we want to be a vishwaguru especially,” Ms. Angmo said a day ahead of the planned July 20 protest march to the Parliament.
