Chandigarh, March 24 The Punjab and Haryana High Court was informed on Tuesday that incarcerated MP Amritpal Singh's continuous absence from Parliament has reached 59 sittings, and he can apply to have his absence excused.
Additional Solicitor General of India Satya Pal Jain made this submission during the resumption of hearing on Amritpal's plea, seeking temporary release to attend the Parliament's budget session.
A division bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry reserved its order on the plea.
During the hearing, Jain along with advocate Dheeraj Jain submitted before the bench that under Article 104 of the Constitution, if an MP remains absent for 60 sittings continuously, his seat can be declared vacant.
Amritpal (33) is currently lodged in Dibrugarh jail in Assam under the National Security Act.
"His (Amritpal) absence from Parliament reached 59 sittings yesterday and 60 days today," said Jain, who appeared on behalf of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
However, Jain said that there is a Lok Sabha committee on condoning absence from the House, and if an MP submits an application along with the reasons for his absence, the committee can consider it and submit it to the Lok Sabha with its recommendations, and the Lok Sabha generally condones it.
Jain submitted that Amritpal can give his application for condoning his absence.
The ASG submitted that Amritpal's absence from the House was condoned twice earlier.
Jain further said that the MP has also been informed in this regard.
He also said that detention is one of the grounds that can be considered for condoning absence.
In the previous hearing last month, the high court was informed that there was no provision in the Lok Sabha rules that allows an MP to attend the session through virtual mode.
Amritpal had moved the high court, seeking parole to attend the Parliament's budget session.
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 Amritpal's application for temporary release to attend the session, citing "serious threat to the security of the state and the maintenance of public order."
The budget session is being held 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 the 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.
Amritpal had contested the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as an independent and won from Khadoor Sahib.
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.