Lok Sabha MP and jailed Khalistani separatist Amritpal Singh has moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking directions to the Union and state governments to allow him to attend parliamentary proceedings, reported Live Law on Tuesday.

Singh, who won the general election in June 2024 from Punjab’s Khadoor Sahib as an independent candidate, is lodged in Assam’s Dibrugarh jail under the National Security Act. He is the leader of the Khalistan separatist organisation Waris Punjab De.

Khalistan is an independent Sikh nation sought by some groups.

In his petition, Singh said that he was being denied his constitutional rights as he has been forced to remain absent from parliamentary proceedings. This was being done with “malicious intent” so that his constituency goes unrepresented in Parliament and his seat gets vacant after 60 days of absence, the MP told the court.

The seat of an MP can be declared “vacant” if they remain absent from the House for 60 days continuously under Article 101 of the Constitution.

Singh told the court that if this is allowed to happen, it “will have serious consequences for the petitioner as well as for his constituency”, adding that he had already been informed about his absence from parliamentary sittings for 46 days.

“An MP under preventive detention has the right to attend Parliament sessions,” he said in the petition. “The detaining authority must make arrangements for the MP to attend Parliament if it is in session.”

The petition added: “The speaker of the Lok Sabha or the chairman of the Rajya Sabha can issue a production order to ensure his presence of the detained MP in the House.”

He said that he had requested the Lok Sabha speaker on November 30 to allow him to attend Parliament. Singh had also made representations to the deputy commissioner/district magistrate, but he did not receive a response, reported Live Law.

Singh also referred to a recent judgement by the Delhi High Court that allowed granted two-day custody parole to jailed Baramulla MP Abdul Rashid Sheikh to attend the Budget Session of Parliament.

Sheikh has been in jail since August 2019 in connection with a terror-funding case filed by the National Investigation Agency. He has been held under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

The legislator had also gone on a hunger strike on January 31 to demand his right to represent his constituency in Parliament.

Singh was arrested on April 23, 2023, from Punjab’s Moga after he had been on the run for more than a month. He was flown to Assam on a special flight and sent to the Dibrugarh Central Jail.

The Punjab Police began cracking down on members of Waris Punjab De days after Amritpal Singh and his supporters stormed a police station in Amritsar on February 23, 2023. This came after one of Singh’s aides was arrested for alleged assault and attempted kidnapping.