Punjab issues fresh NSA orders against Amritpal Singh, aides

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 19

A year after the National Security Act (NSA) was invoked against Waris Punjab De head Amritpal Singh and nine others before they were shifted to Dibrugarh jail in Assam, Punjab today told the Punjab and Haryana High Court about the passing of fresh orders.

The development is significant as the NSA allows the government to detain people for up to 12 months without charging them. The operation of an order under the NSA is limited to one year, necessitating the passing of fresh orders.

Information regarding the fresh order was furnished before the High Court today during the hearing of a bunch of petitions. Appearing before the Bench of Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj, a counsel for the state submitted that the government was passing a fresh order. Advocate-General Gurminder Singh said the order would be produced before the Bench on the next date of hearing.

Appearing for one of the petitioners Sarabjeet Singh Kalsi, advocate Navkiran Singh said a fresh order had been passed against the petitioner along with some others and the order had been served on him in jail. The Union of India was represented in the matter by Additional Solicitor-General of India Satya pal Jain with senior panel counsel Dheeraj Jain.

Amritpal, along with nine others, had been detained under the National Security Act at Dibrugarh Central Jail in Assam since March last year. Another Bench of the high court in a related matter had earlier observed the incident shocked the conscience of the entire nation, where an unlawful mob under Amritpal Singh’s influence took the law into their own hands by attacking a police station with an ill-intention to get one of their associates released from police custody instead of taking legal recourse.

The “show of strength” by the mobsters leading to the violent act depicted that they considered themselves above the “Rule of Law” and threw a challenge to the state’s sovereignty and integrity. They also exhibited future intentions to take law into their own hands just to achieve their own sense of justice, the Bench had added.

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