Chandigarh: Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday adjourned the hearing on the jailed MP Amritpal Singh’s petition seeking permission to attend the Parliament session and set the next date for February 25.

For the record, pro-Khalistan leader and Member of Parliament from Punjab’s Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha seat, Amritpal is currently detained in Dibrugarh Central jail in Assam, under National Security Act (NSA). He along with his aides was arrested on April 23, 2023 for clashing with police personnel and storming Ajnala police station in Amritsar demanding release of one of his aides booked in a case of assault and abduction.

Taking up Amritpal Singh's petition, the court directed Satya Pal Jain, additional solicitor general and counsel for the Union of India, to ascertain whether any parliamentary committee exists to address such cases and also asked him to submit a reply in this regard by February 25.

It may be recalled that the radical Sikh preacher Amritpal had recently moved the high court seeking directions to allow him to attend the Parliament session in obedience of the summons issued by the Lok Sabha secretary.

He held he was not able to attend the Parliament due to his preventive detention in the Assam jail and is forced to remain absent from the Parliamentary proceedings with malicious intent to get his parliamentary constituency unrepresented and to get his seat vacant after 60 days absence which will have serious consequences for the petitioner as well as for voters of his constituency.

Amritpal sought directions to allow him to attend the meetings with the Central government ministers of departments for discussing issues of his constituency and its development; He contended that he was duly elected as a MP from Khadoor Sahib constituency in the 2024 parliamentary polls, securing over 4 lakh votes.

He had formally requested the Lok Sabha Speaker on November 30, 2024, to allow him to attend the ongoing Parliamentary session. He was informed that he had been absent from Parliamentary sitting for a total of 46 days with details of the absence. He had submitted a representation to the deputy commissioner/district magistrate requesting permission to attend the Lok Sabha sessions, but no response had been received.

The petitioner further contended that the present petition has been filed because after 60 days of absence from Parliament proceedings, his seat will be declared vacant and election again will be notified whereas the petitioner has been forcibly detained and not be allowed to attend the Parliament proceedings in spite of 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 the Parliament which in strict terms is contempt of the Parliament.