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New Delhi, Nov 9 (IANS) The Supreme Court will on Monday hear the plea of Punjab’s Khadur Sahib MP Amritpal Singh challenging his continued detention under the National Security Act (NSA), while he is lodged in the high-security Dibrugarh Central Jail in Assam.
According to the cause list published on the apex court website, a bench of Justices Arvind Kumar and NV Anjaria will hear the case on November 10. The petition argued that preventing an elected Member of Parliament from performing his constitutional duties is a violation of his fundamental rights as well as the collective rights of his voters.
‘Waris Punjab De’ chief Amritpal Singh was arrested following a crackdown on March 18, 2023, and later shifted to Dibrugarh jail under NSA provisions.
Despite being incarcerated, the 31-year-old Sikh fundamentalist won the Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha seat as an independent candidate by a margin of 1,97,120 votes over Congress rival Kulbir Singh Zira. He was granted summary parole of four days to take oath in the Lok Sabha, a move approved after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) raised no objections.
His case has been compared to that of other jailed leaders who have been allowed to take oath, including Jammu and Kashmir’s Engineer Rashid.
The NSA custody of Amritpal and his nine associates remains under scrutiny, especially after jail superintendent Nipen Das was arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Assam Prison Act for supplying unauthorized gadgets inside the facility.
Assam Police said the devices allowed Amritpal access to the internet, enabling him to extend his reach from inside the jail. Dibrugarh Superintendent of Police said that the jail manual has separate provisions for prisoners under NSA, but the jail superintendent violated it by allowing the gadgets to access Amritpal Singh and other prisoners.
–IANS
PDS/UK