The Punjab government on Friday told the Punjab and Haryana high court that the nomination filing process of radical Sikh preacher and NSA detainee Amritpal Singh for the June 1 Lok Sabha elections is being facilitated at Dibrugarh jail in Assam.

Punjab deputy advocate general Arjun Sheoran told a high court bench of justice Vinod S Bhardwaj that the documentation process is complete after his lawyers and proposer met him in Dibrugarh jail on May 9. The nomination papers will be submitted to the Khadoor Sahib returning officer by his proposer in the next three days, Sheoran told the court.

The submissions were made during the hearing of a plea filed by the Waris Punjab De chief, seeking to prevent any hurdle in the filing of his nomination papers as an Independent candidate.

Amritpal is behind bars along with 10 others from his outfit since April last year. They were detained following a crackdown on the Waris Punjab De by the Centre and Punjab on March 18, 2023. Booked under the National Security Act (NSA), Amritpal was arrested on April 23, 2023, in a Moga village after almost a month-long chase since his escape on March 18, 2023. Last month, the Punjab government re-invoked NSA against all of them.

Once documents are submitted, the Central Jail, Dibrugarh, superintendent will administer the oath to the detenue according to the provisions of law and the certificate of oath would be submitted to the returning officer. The oath is administered once nominations are filed.