Chandigarh, Mar 27 (PTI) The Punjab and Haryana High Court Friday dismissed jailed MP Amritpal Singh’s plea seeking quashing of the Punjab government’s order declining his application for temporary release to attend the budget session of Parliament.
A division bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry held that there is “no constitutional or legal infirmity” in the impugned order.
The court also observed that “national interests are paramount when compared with personal interests”.
In its February 2 order, the Punjab government had declined Amritpal’s application for temporary release to attend the budget session of Parliament, citing “serious threat to the security of the state and the maintenance of public order”.
Amritpal (33), currently lodged in Assam’s Dibrugarh jail under the National Security Act, had challenged the state government’s order.
The high court, in its order, said, “The threat perception to the public order and security of the State continues to exist which is evident from the detailed reports of the District Magistrate Amritsar and the Senior Superintendent of Police, Amritsar (Rural) dated January 22.01.2026 and 21.01.2026 respectively.” “Whenever the right to liberty of a person, who is suffering a preventive detention order, is pitched against public order maintenance of security of State, the first and foremost thing which needs to be considered is as to whether grant of liberty would in any manner prejudice the concept of public order and security of the State,” the court observed.
Even if there is an iota of doubt in the mind of the competent authority that there is a possibility of public order or maintenance of security of the State being breached, then the liberty of an individual is rendered subservient and inconsequential, it said.
Sovereignty, integrity and security of the State and nation are always paramount. An individual’s right to speech or liberty is always subservient to the larger concept of public order and security of the State/Nation, the order read.
We have no manner of doubt that national interests are paramount when compared with personal interests, it said.
“The contention of learned senior counsel for the State of Punjab opposing the prayer of temporary release of petitioner may or may not be true but the very fact that competent authority [State of Punjab and the concerned District Magistrate Amritsar and the Senior Superintendent of Police, Amritsar (Rural)] have expressed their concern about the possible breach of public order and security of the State in case of temporary release of the petitioner, we have no option but to uphold the impugned order,” the bench said.
The veracity of the material forming the foundation of the apprehension nursed by competent authority of breach of public order cannot be gone into. Such apprehension in the considered opinion of this court is based on subjective satisfaction of material available on record, it said.
Referring to some past cases in connection with Article 105 of Constitution, the court said it has been categorically held in all these authoritative decisions that no higher or special right is available to a preventively detained sitting Member of Parliament, than an ordinary citizen.
Therefore, a sitting Member of Parliament as well as a common man would be subjected to the same privileges and obligations as contained in Section 15 of NSA, it said.
In view of the above discussion, this court is of the considered view that no illegality or impropriety can be found in the impugned order, which accordingly, stands upheld and the present petition stands dismissed without costs, the court held.
Amritpal had earlier moved the high court, seeking parole to attend the budget session of Parliament.
The court in January had directed the Punjab government to decide within seven working days the representation of Amritpal, seeking temporary release to attend the budget session.
Later, the Punjab government declined the Amritpal’s application for temporary release.
The budget session has been convened in two phases – from January 28 to February 13 and from March 9 to April 2.
According to the plea, Amritpal sought to highlight various matters, including the 2025 floods in Punjab, the rampant rise of drug abuse in the state, and developmental issues of his Khadoor Sahib constituency in Parliament.
Amritpal, the chief of the Waris Punjab De group who styled himself after slain Khalistani militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, was arrested in Moga’s Rode village on April 23, 2023, following a manhunt of over a month.
Punjab Police had launched the crackdown after the February 23, 2023, Ajnala incident in which Singh and his supporters, some of them brandishing swords and guns, allegedly broke through barricades and barged into a police station on the outskirts of Amritsar city, and clashed with police for the release of his aides.
His detention was extended under the NSA in April 2025, even as his nine associates, who were also detained in the Assam jail, were brought back to Punjab. These nine associates were arrested in connection with the 2023 Ajnala police station attack incident. PTI SUN VSD ZMN
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