The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday refused to entertain a public interest litigation seeking the cancellation of parole granted to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, The Indian Express reported.

The petition was filed by advocate HC Arora. He had earlier written to the Haryana government challenging Singh’s parole.

Arora withdrew his petition after the state government told the court that it would decide on his representation in a week.

The Dera Sacha Sauda chief was granted a 40-day parole in October ahead of the Adampur bye-poll on November 3 and Haryana panchayat elections on November 12.

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This was the third time Singh has been granted temporary release from prison this year. In June, the sect leader was released on month-long parole ahead of the Sangrur bye-election in Punjab. In February, he was granted a 21-day furlough ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections.

Arora, in his petition, questioned how the government was allowing Singh to hold satsangs, or religious meetings, The Times of India reported. He noted that the Dera Sacha Sauda chief had released a song titled “Sadi Nit Diwali”, and said that the state government was indirectly helping him by not requesting YouTube to remove it.

“All these activities are resulting in a serious threat to peace in the neighbouring state of Punjab where people opposed to Ram Rahim are sitting on dharnas outside Nam Charcha Ghars,” the petition said.

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Nam Charcha Ghars are congregation centres for followers of the sect.

In October, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij claimed that he had nothing to do with the granting of parole to Singh and that the decision was taken by the jail department.

A special Central Bureau of Investigation court had in October 2021 sentenced Singh and four others to life imprisonment in the murder case of sector manager Ranjit Singh. In 2017, he was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for raping two of his women disciples at the Dera headquarters in the Sirsa district.