Chandigarh, March 12: The Centre on Wednesday informed the Punjab and Haryana High Court that the Member of Parliament from Khadoor Sahib, Amritpal Singh, has been granted a “leave of absence for 54 days” for attending the ongoing session of the Lok Sabha.
Singh, who is currently detained in Assam under the National Security Act (NSA), had approached the court seeking permission to attend parliamentary proceedings, fearing that prolonged absence beyond 60 days could lead to his constituency being declared vacant.
During the hearing, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sumeet Goel noted that Singh’s concern had been addressed by a letter dated March 11 from the Lok Sabha Secretariat, granting him the leave of absence.
“Since the petitioner’s apprehension regarding disqualification from Parliament due to absence stands alleviated, the relief sought is effectively satisfied,” the bench observed. At the resumed hearing, Additional Solicitor-General of India Satya Pal Jain placed before the Bench the letter for granting “leave of absence of 54 days”.
Senior advocate Anupam Gupta appeared for the state of Punjab, while senior advocate R.S. Bains represented Singh. Bains had informed the High Court that the legislator had remained absent for 54 days and only six days remained for his seat to be declared vacant on grounds of unauthorised absence.
Earlier, the Union government had informed the High Court that a 15-member parliamentary committee, led by BJP member Biplab Kumar Deb, had been constituted by the Lok Sabha Speaker to examine leave applications of all absent Members of Parliament, including jailed Amritpal Singh, from the ongoing Parliament session.
Sikh radical Amritpal Singh has been locked up in an Assam jail under the National Security Act. In his first electoral contest, Amritpal Singh, head of ‘Waris Punjab De’, won the Khadoor Sahib seat by 1,97,120 votes over his nearest rival, Congress candidate Kulbir Singh Zira.
For supporters and sympathisers, Amritpal Singh is the next-gen of Sikh ‘separatist leaders’ like Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who was killed in the Indian Army’s Operation Blue Star in 1984. He also considers the late separatist an “inspiration” for him.
The fiery pro-Khalistan, self-styled preacher had been running ‘separatist’ propaganda through speeches before going to jail. On the radar of Central investigating agencies, he drew comparisons to Bhindranwale owing to his looks and donning a navy blue turban, a white chola and a sword-sized kirpan.
However, unlike Bhindranwale, Amritpal Singh didn’t have any formal religious schooling. A dropout from a polytechnic, he cut his hair and shaved his beard while in Dubai. Police records say Amritpal Singh, who tied the knot with UK-based NRI Kirandeep Kaur in 2023, has been involved in scores of disputes, kidnappings and issuing threats.
IANS