E-Paper
HC asks Punjab to decide on Amritpal’s parole plea to attend Parliament within week
Khadoor Sahib Independent MP, jailed in Assam since 2023, has filed representation to be allowed to attend Parliament’s winter session in December.
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday directed the Punjab government to decide on Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh’s representation, seeking temporary release to attend the winter session of Parliament, within a week.
Amritpal Singh has been lodged in the high-security Dibrugarh jail in Assam since his arrest in April 2023 under the National Security Act (NSA). Nine of his associates were brought back to Punjab earlier this year, while his detention was extended by a year.
The bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Sanjiv Berry passed the directions to decide on his representation within a week while hearing Amritpal Singh’s plea in which he sought directions to the Union and state authorities to permit his release on parole or arrange his personal attendance in the Lok Sabha during the winter session to be held between December 1 and 19.
Amritpal Singh has invoked Section 15 of the NSA, which empowers the competent authority to grant parole to a detainee in exceptional circumstances. In his plea, the radical Sikh leader has said that Parliament is a constitutional body and being its member representing Khadoor Sahib, he should be allowed to participate in the proceedings.
During the hearing, Amritpal Singh’s counsel Rajwinder Singh Bains told the court that the representation was moved on November 13. However, the authorities had not passed an order on it. The representation has also been sent to the Lok Sabha secretariat, state government and Amritsar district magistrate, who had passed the detention order.
When the court enquired the which issues Amritpal Singh planned to take up during the Lok Sabha session, his counsel said he planned to raise the plight of residents of 800 villages in Khadoor Sahib constituency that were devastated by floods in August and September.
The petition has been disposed of by the court. The detailed order is awaited.
Amritpal Singh, who styled himself after slain militant preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, was arrested in Moga’s Rode village on April 23, 2023, after a month-long hunt. The Khalistan sympathiser had escaped the police net in Jalandhar district on March 18, 2023, switching vehicles and changing appearances. Punjab Police launched the crackdown on him after he and his armed supporters laid siege to the police station at Ajnala on the outskirts of Amritsar on February 23, 2023, to get his aides released.
