Ladakh administration tells Sonam Wangchuk-founded school to halt activities

The Ladakh administration has told the Desert Flower School to pause classes and other activities. The school is located in Phyang, Leh, and is the parent institution’s educational project. The order matters because the land used by the wider institute is the subject of a case before the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court.

The notice said Sonam Wangchuk had started classes without obtaining clearance from the authorities. It was addressed to Gitanjali J Angmo, co-founder and chief executive officer of the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives. Angmo had also sought a no-objection certificate for proposed members of the school’s managing committee.

The administration asked Angmo to strictly maintain the status quo. In practical terms, the school cannot begin classes or other activities while the court proceedings continue. The institute’s challenge to the cancellation remains pending, so the school’s operations depend on the dispute’s legal outcome.

“Status quo” means preserving the existing position rather than creating new facts during a legal dispute. Here, the Ladakh administration used the phrase while the High Court considers the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives’ challenge to the cancelled land allotment. The instruction aims to prevent activities from expanding before the court rules.

The administration said classes had begun at the Desert Flower School without official clearance. It also referred to Gitanjali J Angmo’s request for a no-objection certificate for proposed members of the school’s managing committee. The notice therefore told her to keep the matter unchanged.

In practical terms, the school should not commence classes or other activities. The institute should also avoid treating the disputed land allotment as settled or taking steps that alter the position. The notice does not decide the case itself. The High Court’s pending proceedings will determine what happens next.

The Himalayan Institute of Alternatives was allotted 135 acres of land in Leh. The allotment came through a 40-year lease granted in 2018. That scale made the land central to the institute’s plan to create a proposed university and develop its educational work.

The administration said the lease carried important conditions. The institute had to execute the required deed, set up the proposed university, and complete a formal handover of the land. According to the administration’s order, these steps were not completed. It also said the 40-year lease had lapsed in May 2019.

Those alleged failures became the basis for cancelling the allotment in August 2025. The administration declared that the 135 acres “stands escheated to the state.” The institute disputes the cancellation and has challenged it before the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court, where the case remains pending.

The administration cancelled the land allotment in August 2025 after concluding that the institute had not fulfilled the lease’s requirements. It said the 40-year lease granted in 2018 had lapsed in May 2019. The decision directly affects the land planned for the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives.

The administration identified three main failures: the institute did not execute the required deed, did not establish the proposed university, and did not complete a formal handover of the 135-acre plot. On that basis, its order said the land “stands escheated to the state.”

In this context, that phrase means the state treated the land as reverting to it rather than remaining with the institute under the earlier allotment. It does not mean the dispute is finally settled. The institute challenged the cancellation before the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court, and those proceedings are still pending.

While the High Court considers the institute’s challenge, the Desert Flower School cannot commence classes or other activities under the administration’s notice. The instruction is linked to the disputed land allotment, not to a final court ruling on whether the institute was entitled to keep the plot.

The administration said Sonam Wangchuk had started classes without obtaining clearance. It addressed the notice to Gitanjali J Angmo, who co-founded and leads the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives. Angmo had sought a no-objection certificate for proposed members of the school’s managing committee, but the administration told her to maintain the status quo.

For now, the school’s activities are effectively paused. The institute’s land remains claimed by the state under the August 2025 cancellation, while the institute contests that decision. The next major development will come through the High Court proceedings, although the article does not state when the court will decide.

Sonam Wangchuk is the activist who founded the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives and the Desert Flower School. The institute is the school’s parent institution. Gitanjali J Angmo is the institute’s co-founder and chief executive officer, and she is also Wangchuk’s wife.

The Ladakh administration is the government authority that cancelled the institute’s 135-acre land allotment in August 2025. It said the lease had lapsed and that required steps were not completed. Later, it ordered the school not to begin classes or other activities while the land case remained before the High Court.

Angmo received the notice and had sought a no-objection certificate for proposed members of the school’s managing committee. The institute challenged the cancellation in court. Wangchuk called the action a “witch-hunt” aimed at suppressing residents’ demands. The court proceedings now sit between the administration’s restrictions and the institute’s challenge.

The Sixth Schedule is a constitutional arrangement that, as described in the article, guarantees certain protections for land and nominal autonomy for citizens in designated tribal areas. It matters because those protections can affect who controls land and how local affairs are governed.

In Ladakh, protesters demanded statehood for the region and its inclusion in the Sixth Schedule. Their demands form part of the wider political background to the institute’s land dispute. The Himalayan Institute of Alternatives is contesting the administration’s cancellation of a 135-acre allotment, making land protection especially significant.

The article links these issues through Wangchuk’s activism and the protests. He was detained on September 26 last year after clashes between protesters and security personnel, in which several people were injured and four were killed in police firing. He was released on March 4. The High Court land case remains pending, so the political demands and legal dispute continue separately but against the same regional backdrop.