The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday dismissed jailed MP Amritpal Singh’s plea challenging the legality of the third consecutive detention order issued against him on April 17 last year under the stringent National Security Act (NSA).
The Bench, headed by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu, while announcing the verdict, said, “It is clear as daylight that the impugned order of preventive detention passed against the petitioner is immune from the powers of judicial review.”
Appellant Amritpal Singh, winner of the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Khadoor Sahib, had claimed that the successive detentions were “arbitrary, without jurisdiction and violative of constitutional safeguards under Articles 21 and 22.”
The court was informed that, prior to his detention, Amritpal Singh was engaged in social reform initiatives, youth rehabilitation and drug de-addiction programmes through his organisation, Waris Punjab De.
According to the defence counsel, his speeches were aimed at preserving Sikh values, identity and constitutional protections rather than promoting separatism or violence.
The petitioner further stated that preventive detention could not be sustained merely on the basis of pending criminal cases, especially when other criminal proceedings were already ongoing.
It was also stated that the fresh detention order was clearly based on an FIR registered against Singh on October 10, 2024. Singh, on the other hand, contended that his name did not appear in the FIR and that his nomination was announced later through a DDR dated October 18, 2024.
He also claimed that there was no single evidence that could link him to the incident stated in the FIR, adding that despite this, he continues to remain confined in Central Jail, Dibrugarh.
The State, on the other hand, defended the continued preventive detention, citing the “gravity and enormity of the threat posed by a hit list.” The Bench was told that Singh’s “close and intimate association with dreaded terrorists and gangsters” formed the basis of the detention order.
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