Punjab MP Amritpal Singh granted 54-day leave, Centre informs high court

The Centre on Wednesday told the Punjab and Haryana high court that Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh, who is jailed in Assam’s Dibrugarh, has been granted 54 days’ leave of absence from the Lok Sabha. The leave has been approved by parliamentary panel and now there no threat to his membership.

Additional solicitor general of India, Satya Pal Jain, told the high court bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Sumeet Goel that the committee, which looks into such issues, has approved leave of four MPs, including Amritpal Singh, on Tuesday and the Lok Sabha secretariat has informed him about the approval of 54 days’ leave. Jain also produced a copy of the letter before the court.

“In view of this, there is no threat to his membership,” Jain told the court.

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Dheeraj Jain, another counsel in the case, said that in view of this Amritpal Singh has withdrawn his petition to pursue his second demand of allowing him to attend Parliament before the authorities.

The MP had approached high court on February 21, demanding directions be issued to the authorities to allow him to attend Parliament’s budget session. He cited that if a member is absent from parliamentary sittings for 60 consecutive days, he/she loses membership.

According to a communication from the Lok Sabha secretariat, he has been absent for 46 days till December 12, 2024. “Now only six days are left,” he had told the court on February 21. “It is malicious intent from the authorities so that the petitioner’s parliamentary constituency goes unrepresented. The petitioner has been forcibly detained and not allowed to attend Parliament proceedings despite his intent to do so, and in such circumstances, it cannot be called absence but forced action by the authorities keeping the petitioner away from Parliament, which in strict terms is contempt of Parliament,” his plea read.

He had also cited the case of Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid, who is in Tihar Jail in connection with a terror-funding case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Rashid got parole to attend Lok Sabha for two days last month.

A radical Sikh preacher, Amritpal, won the Khadoor Sahib seat with 1.9 lakh votes as an Independent and was administered the oath of office on July 5 last year. Since then, he has not attended Parliament.

He has been in Dibrugarh Central Jail since his arrest along with nine others after a month-long chase on April 23, 2023. They were detained following a crackdown on his Waris Punjab De outfit on March 18, 2023. In April 2024, the Punjab government re-invoked the National Security Act against all of them.