File photo of radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh
Credit: PTI Photo
Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday directed the Punjab government to decide within seven working days the representation of jailed MP Amritpal Singh seeking temporary release to attend the upcoming budget session of Parliament.
The Khadoor Sahib MP is currently lodged in Assam's Dibrugarh jail under the National Security Act since April 2023. He has sought parole under the provisions of Section 15 of the National Security Act, 1980, (pertaining to the temporary release of persons detained), to allow him to attend the Parliament session.
The budget session will commence 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.
Hearing the plea, the high court noted that the order of preventive detention was passed on April 17, 2025, by the Amritsar district magistrate, an officer subordinate to a state government.
Hence, the state government is the competent authority as per Section 2(1)(a) of the National Security Act, 1980, to deal with the kind of request made by the petitioner, the high court said.
The power to grant temporary release under Section 15 of the National Security Act, 1980, lies with the 'appropriate government', as defined under Section 2(1)(a) of the Act.
A Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu disposed of the writ petition with a direction to the Punjab home secretary to decide on the petitioner's January 17 application within seven working days.
The outcome of the representation by Amritpal (33) should also be communicated forthwith to the petitioner as well as his counsel, the bench ordered.
According to the plea, Amritpal wants to highlight various matters, including the 2025 floods in Punjab, the rampant rise of drug abuse in the state, and developmental issues of his Khadoor Sahib constituency in Parliament.
He had earlier too sought to attend the Winter session of Parliament. However, his plea became infructuous as the arguments in the matter remained inconclusive by the time the session concluded last month.
Amritpal, the chief of the Waris Punjab De group who styled himself after slain Khalistani militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, was arrested in Moga's Rode village on April 23, 2023, following a manhunt of over a month.
The Khalistani sympathiser escaped the police net in Jalandhar district on March 18, 2023, switching vehicles and changing appearances.
Punjab Police had launched the crackdown after the February 23, 2023, Ajnala incident in which Singh and his supporters, some of them brandishing swords and guns, allegedly broke through barricades and barged into a police station on the outskirts of Amritsar city, and clashed with police for the release of his aides.
Singh had fought the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as an independent and won from Khadoor Sahib.
His detention was extended under the NSA in April 2025, even as his nine associates, who were also detained in the Assam jail, were brought back to Punjab. These nine associates were arrested in connection with the 2023 Ajnala police station attack incident.