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Journalism of Courage
Incarcerated Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh on Wednesday (February 19) moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court to attend the ongoing Parliament session, lest he lose his seat because of his prolonged absence from the House.
Amritpal, who faces charges under the stringent National Security Act, has been detained in Dibrugarh since April 2023. He contested and won the 2024 Lok Sabha election from prison, but thus far has an attendance of only 2%, according to PRS Legislative Research data.
“If for a period of sixty days a member of either House of Parliament is without permission of the House absent from all meetings thereof, the House may declare his seat vacant,” Article 101(4) says. The 60 days, however, do not account for “any period during which the House is prorogued or is adjourned for more than four consecutive days”.
Effectively, the period of absence is only calculated based on the actual sittings of Parliament. Amritpal, for instance, only attended one sitting of the Lok Sabha — the one in which he was sworn in last July. Since then, he has remained in detention in Assam. This has amounted to nearly 50 absences thus far.
However, as former Lok Sabha Secretary General P D T Achary told The Indian Express, he does not recall a single instance in which Article 101(4) was invoked, and an MP lost her seat as a result.
The operative term in Article 101(4) is “without permission of the House”. For long absences, MPs write to the ‘Committee on Absence of Members from the Sittings of the House’, the parliamentary panel that deals with this issue.
The committee makes recommendations on each leave application, which are then ratified by the House concerned. In practice, however, applications are seldom rejected. “Amritpal as an MP has every right to write to the panel and request permission to be absent on the grounds that he is in jail and is not getting bail,” Achary said.
Past leave application reports list illness — their own or some relative’s — as the most common reason for MPs being granted leave. That said, members have requested and been granted leave on the count of being imprisoned as well.
In 2023, then Ghosi MP Atul Rai of the Bahujan Samaj Party sought permission to remain absent on 23 consecutive sittings of Parliament as he was in jail. His application was granted.
Even if an MP is absent for more than 60 days, the House has to “declare” the seat vacant, meaning the matter has to be put to vote. This makes it even less likely that Amritpal will end up losing his seat simply because he is unable to attend proceedings.
