Order cryptic: Amritpal challenges parole denial

Days after the Punjab Government rejected Amritpal Singh’s plea for temporary release from jail to attend the winter session of Parliament from December 1 to 19, the Khadoor Sahib MP on Friday again moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court, challenging the rejection of his representation.

Referring to the order dated November 24 dismissing his application for temporary release/parole, he submitted that it was illegal, arbitrary way and cryptic as there was no reasonable basis for passing the same. He also referred to the case of Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid, who was earlier permitted by a Delhi court to attend the session.

Taking up the plea, the Division Bench, headed by Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra, fixed the matter for hearing on Monday. Appearing before the court, his counsel at the onset mentioned: “The Punjab Government was directed to decide the application within a week. Day before yesterday, they dismissed the application.”

The petition will now be taken up on Monday (December 1) likely by the Bench headed by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu as the previous direction to the government to decide the plea was issued by it. The Bench had, on November 21, disposed of the matter while asking “the Home Secretary, Department of Home Affairs and Justice, to decide the application dated November 13 already filed by the petitioner within a week from today, preferably before the commencement of the Parliament session”.

In his plea, Amritpal Singh added that the detention order was “politically motivated” and passed “with mala fide intent of silencing the elected MP representing 19 lakh constituents”. His continuous detention undermined democratic rights and will of the electorate, he stated.

Referring to the Punjab’s order, he said reliance was placed upon the comments of the Amritsar district magistrate and Amritsar rural SSP stating that his temporary release for attending the session was a threat to the security of the state and maintenance of public order. This was “despite the fact that the visit of the petitioner to Parliament would be completely outside the jurisdictional limits of Punjab,” his counsel added.

Detained at Dibrugarh Central Jail under the National Security Act, the Khadoor Sahib MP had earlier also invoked Section 15 of the NSA, which empowers the competent authority to grant parole to a detainee in exceptional circumstances.

Amritpal’s plea, filed through counsel Imaan Singh Khara, had stated that despite being in preventive detention since April 2023, the petitioner was elected from the Khadoor Sahib constituency in 2024 with nearly 4 lakh votes.