E-Paper
HC notice to Punjab, Centre on Amritpal’s plea
The Punjab and Haryana high court has sought response from the Centre and Punjab on the plea from Sikh radical leader and Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh seeking quashing of proceedings initiated against him under the National Security Act.
Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court has sought response from the Centre and Punjab on the plea from Sikh radical leader and Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh seeking quashing of proceedings initiated against him under the National Security Act.
The high court bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Anil Kshetarpal listed the matter for hearing on August 28 and also verbally asked Punjab to produce the “material” on record based on which the detention order was passed. Detailed order is awaited.
Amritpal, along with nine others from his outfit, has been lodged in Dibrugarh Central Jail since April last year. They were detained following a crackdown on the outfit Waris Punjab De by the Centre and Punjab on March 18, 2023. Booked under the National Security Act (NSA), Amritpal was detained on April 23, 2023, in a Moga village after almost a month-long chase since his escape on March 18, 2023. In April, the Punjab government re-invoked the NSA against all of them. He was elected as an MP from Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha seat in the recently concluded parliamentary polls.
The plea claims that his detention under the NSA is illegal and as such liable to be set aside. “It serves no purpose whatsoever except to punish the petitioner for being vocal against the state and the central government on major political issues, which is a democratic right of every citizen of this country,” the plea claims, adding: “The grounds of detention are primarily based on social media posts uploaded by different persons across the world, which have hardly any impact in the state of Punjab and possibly the security of the State of India cannot be so fragile as to be impacted by social media posts.”
During the hearing when the court asked his counsel, senior advocate RS Bains whether there were procedural lapses while passing the order, Bains said that order has been passed based on “social media posts”.
The government counsel, however, said that there were intelligence inputs based on which the order of detention was passed.
Now the matter would be taken up on August 28, when pleas filed by other detainees are also to be taken up by the court. In those pleas also the court had asked the Centre and state government to file fresh affidavit detailing about tenability of the preventive detention order as
the petitioners have challenged the same despite the period of detention having been over.
