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Parole for budget session: HC seeks Punjab response on Amritpal’s plea in 10 days
The high court on Wednesday sought response from the Punjab government on a plea from jailed Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh, seeking temporary release to attend the ongoing budget session.
The high court on Wednesday sought response from the Punjab government on a plea from jailed Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh, seeking temporary release to attend the ongoing budget session.
The high court bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Sanjiv Berry has sought response within 10 days. The budget session commenced on January 28 and will continue till February 13 in the first phase. The second phase will take place from March 9 to April 2. The Punjab government had rejected his representation on February 2 citing “serious threat to the security of the state and the maintenance of public order.”
Amritpal is currently lodged in Assam’s Dibrugarh jail under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) since April 2023. Having won the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Amritpal has been out on parole once to attend the Parliament on July 5, 2024, when he was administered the oath of office.
In February 2025, he sought parole to attend the Parliament session, which was not allowed. In December 2025, he moved the high court challenging the Punjab government’s decision not to grant him parole to attend the winter session citing potential law and order issues. However, the petition could not be decided, and by that time, the session ended.
The petition seeks quashing of February 2 order of the state government and demands he be allowed the temporary release/parole to attend the budget session. It further demands that appropriate arrangements for the personal attendance at the budget session of Parliament be made. The plea argues that the order passed by the district magistrate, Amritsar, is wholly illegal, arbitrary, and without jurisdiction, as the district magistrate has no power under Section 3(2) of the National Security Act, 1980. No delegation of authority by the state government to the district magistrate has been shown or supplied to the detenue, it claims.
It further claims that the detention order is “politically motivated”, passed with the “mala fide” intent of silencing the petitioner, who is an elected member of Parliament representing 19 lakh constituents. His continued detention “undermines” democratic rights and the will of the electorate, it says.
“..the present petitioner wants to represent the people of his Khadoor Sahib constituency before the Parliament and also to highlight the various issues faced by the people of his constituency in the true spirit of democracy and in consonance with the constitution of India,” the plea says referring to issues such as August- September 2025 floods in Punjab, drugs menace and developmental works related issues in his constituency.
The radical Sikh leader won the Khadoor Sahib seat with 1.9 lakh votes as an Independent in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and was administered the oath of office on July 5, 2024. Since then, he has not attended the Parliament. Nine of his associates were brought back to Punjab in March-April last year. But his third detention order was passed for one more year by the Amritsar district magistrate.
