Chandigarh, April 22 - The Punjab and Haryana High Court was informed on Tuesday that Amritpal Singh, MP from Khadoor Sahib, currently lodged in Assam's Dibrugarh jail under the National Security Act (NSA), has not yet been provided with fresh grounds for his detention. His lawyer told the court that he does not have any instructions to challenge the third detention order so far. Appearing before a bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sumit Goel, senior advocate R.S. Bains, representing Amritpal, said that he would still insist on the court deciding the matter already pending.
Bains said that the second detention order expired today. The third detention order is yet to be provided. But he had instructions to insist on a petition against the existing detention order being heard by the bench.
He further said that the court needed to determine whether social media posts can be used as material for detaining a person. Initially, Amritpal and his nine associates were detained under the NSA. But the state revoked the NSA against his associates in March and April this year, while his detention has been extended for a third year. Senior advocate Anupam Gupta, appearing for the state, apprised the bench about the status of cases related to other detainees, most of whom had lapsed after the detention period expired. The matter will now come up for hearing again in July.