The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday dismissed the petition seeking permission to participate in the proceedings of the Parliament of Lok Sabha MP Amritpal Singh in jail. Amritpal, who represents the Khadur Sahib seat in the Lok Sabha, is a Sikh separatist leader and preacher, and is in custody under the National Security Act in Dibrugarh Central Jail, Assam.
During the hearing, the Center informed the bench of the High Court of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sumit Goyal that the Lok Sabha had given a holiday of 54 days to Amritpal. Additional Solicitor General Satyapal Jain, who appeared on behalf of the Center and the Lok Sabha, kept the letter sent by the Lok Sabha Secretariat in the record.
According to the information given in the court on Wednesday, this decision of the Lok Sabha came a fortnight after the Lok Sabha Speaker set up a 15 -member committee to investigate the holiday applications of Members of Parliament including Amritpal.
Amritpal wrote a letter to the speaker on 30 November and 16 December 2024 asking him to participate in the session, on the basis that if he is absent for 60 days, he would be disqualified from the Lok Sabha and his seat would be declared vacant. He also wrote a letter to the District Magistrate of Amritsar (officer detained under NSA) with a similar argument.
The Lok Sabha informed them that they have been absent from parliamentary meetings for 46 days from 24 June 2024 to December 12, 2024. When no response came from the District Magistrate, Amritpal moved to the High Court in January this year.
Strictly opposing Amritpal's petition, the Punjab government argued that he has no constitutional or legal right to participate in Parliament while in custody. Senior advocate Anupam Gupta, who represented the state government, told the court that the Supreme Court has investigated in detail the decisions of two major constitutional bench on the issue of the detained MP's right to participate in the Parliament sessions.
Amritpal was arrested by the Punjab Police on 23 April 2023 and has now been in preventive custody for almost two years. He is facing about a dozen cases including murder and kidnapping at various places in Punjab. In one case, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) has also been imposed. In all these cases, his arrest and he has not been prosecuted yet.
Amritpal, associated with the transport business in Dubai, came to India in August 2022 and led a radical group called Waris Punjab De. This group was founded by actor Deep Sidhu. Sidhu died in a car accident in February the same year. The reins of the group were handed over to Amritpal.
The armed group of Amritpal and his supporters has been involved in several controversies, including the alleged kidnapping of Varinder Singh, attacking the Ajnala police station, vandalizing gurdwaras and openly committing a crusade for building a separate Sikh state. In January this year, the Punjab Police imposed a UAPA against Sikh worker Gurpreet Hari Nau to kill him.
Amritpal won the 2024 Lok Sabha election as an independent candidate by a margin of more than 2 lakh votes. In his absence, Amritpal's parents, including his family, campaigned on his behalf. Former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, now Congress MP in the Lok Sabha, advocated allowing Amritpal to participate in the Lok Sabha sessions, causing an uproar in Parliament in July 2024.
While hearing a similar petition filed by Jail-jailed Jammu and Kashmir MP Sheikh Abdul Rashid or Engineer Rashid, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the National Investigation Agency to clarify its stand in the case. Rashid is facing allegations under the anti -terrorism law, UAPA.
