Chandigarh, Jan. 24 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday gave the Punjab government seven working days to decide on the representation from National Security Act (NSA) detainee and Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh's parole plea seeking permission to attend the forthcoming budget session of the Parliament. The petition was taken up by the special bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Archana Puri, which, after considering submissions, disposed it off with the directions to the Punjab home secretary to decide the representation within seven working days. Earlier, the government had sought 10 days, while Amritpal Singh's counsel had demanded that the plea be decided before the commencement of the budget session. Having won the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Khadoor Sahib, Amritpal Singh has been out on parole once to attend the Parliament on July 5, 2024, when he was administered the oath of office. In February 2025, he sought parole to attend the Parliament session, which was not allowed. In December 2025, he moved the high court challenging the Punjab government's decision not to grant him parole to attend the winter session, citing potential law and order issues. However, the petition could not be decided before the end of the session. Now, the Waris Punjab De chief, who has been in Dibrugarh jail since 2023, has filed a fresh plea stating that he has submitted a representation before the Punjab authorities on January 17 seeking parole to attend the budget session. Hence, they ( the Punjab government) be directed to decide it expeditiously. The budget session is slated to take place in two phases-from January 28 to February 13 and from March 9 to April 2. During the hearing, additional solicitor general Satya Pal Jain had apprised the court that his absence from the Lok Sabha up to August 9, 2025 stand condoned, and after that, he has been absent for 32 days only. "If he applies for condonation of his absence before the designated committee of the Lok Sabha, the same can be considered by it," Jain said. Jain added that the seat of an MP can be declared vacant only if a member remains absent for more than 60 days. In his plea, Amritpal says the detention order is politically motivated, passed with the malafide intent of silencing the petitioner, who is an elected Member of Parliament representing 19 lakh constituents. His continued detention undermines democratic rights and the will of the electorate, the MP claims in his plea. "The present petitioner wants to represent the people of his Khadoor Sahib constituency before the Parliament and also to highlight the various issues faced by the people of his constituency in the true spirit of democracy and in consonance with the constitution of India," the petition says. The radical Sikh preacher won the Khadoor Sahib seat with 1.9 lakh votes as an Independent in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. He has been under detention at Dibrugarh jail in Assam since his arrest in April 2023 under the NSA. Nine of his associates were brought back to Punjab in March-April last year. But in his case, a third detention order was passed for one more year by the Amritsar district magistrate. Amritpal was arrested in Moga's Rode village on April 23, 2023, two months after an attack at the Ajnala police station, wherein he and his supporters, some of them brandishing swords and guns, allegedly broke through barricades and barged into the police station on the outskirts of Amritsar city, and clashed with police for the release of his aide....