Chandigarh, November 8
A plethora of petitions challenging the actions of the Sikh Gurdwara Judicial Commission are lined up before the Punjab and Haryana High Court for hearing on November 11, a day before the general house of the SGPC meets to elect its new executive committee for the year 2002-03. These will come up before Bench No 1 headed by the Chief Justice.
Needless to say the future of Punjab politics hinges a great deal on the outcome of the November 12 elections in which the SAD led by Mr Parkash Singh Badal is fighting with its back to the wall against the Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali Dal backed by the Congress.
Mr Badal faces an uphill task in keeping his flock together as five of his ardent supporters have already been debarred from voting by the Sikh Gurdwara Judicial Commission in the November 12 election. Intriguingly, these members were not even given a hearing before ex-parte orders were slapped on them.
In fact, doubts have been raised about the validity of the present SGJC. The Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, is silent about the powers of the State Government to suspend a member of the commission. The state can appoint or remove a member but there is no provision in the Act authorising the state to suspend a member as it did in the case of Mr Dara Singh, who was charged with “moving about in an inebriated condition”.
The state government invoked Section 14 of the Punjab General Clauses Act, 1898, to suspend him, an order which Mr Dara Singh has challenged in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Earlier, on July 5, the Punjab Government rescinded the January 12, 1999, notification about the constitution of the SGJC by the previous SAD-BJP Government.
Not long thereafter, a Constitution Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court pronounced its reserved landmark order declaring that the SGPC and the SGJC were co-terminus. It also upheld the power of the Punjab Government to constitute the commission thus rejecting the view that the term of the SGJC was perpetual.
The judgement, however, did not say anything either on the January, 1999, or July 5, 2002, notifications issued by the State Government about the constitution of the SGJC.
The Gurdwaras Act states clearly that the SGJC shall consist of three members who shall be Sikhs appointed from time to time as may be necessary by the state government.
Interestingly, as a number of petitions are pending in the high court, the SGJC has gone ahead and debarred at least four of such petitioners from enjoying the benefits as a member of the SGPC till month-end thus debarring them from participating in the November 12 election.
In all these cases, the applications were heard ex-parte and orders pronounced without even serving charges on the members concerned or giving them any opportunity to present their views.
In all these cases, there has been nothing on record against these members who were elected to the general house of the SGPC in 1996, and have already completed their scheduled tenure of five years. The ex-parte orders have been passed on the eve of the elections to the executive committee much after the elections were notified.
The moot point is can the SGJC disqualify a member at this stage? Never before in the history of the SGPC has such a thing happened.
Another issue being raised is whether the orders passed by the SGJC can be put aside by the SGPC President at the time of the general house meeting on the plea that the SGJC was not properly constituted.
