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SC pulls up Punjab on Sikh judicial panel
S.S. Negi
Our Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, September 5
The Supreme Court today took strong exception to the Punjab Government’s act of filing ‘incorrect’ copies of the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order in the Sikh Gurdwara Judicial Commission (SGJC) case before it and directed it to file an affidavit within a week to explain the reason for the lapse.

Similar affidavits were sought from Kashmir Singh, Dara Singh and Raghbir Singh, whose reappointment to the SGJC was quashed by the High Court on August 14 by a Bench comprising Mr Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Mr Justice B.N. Agrawal.

The Bench, which described it as a serious lapse on the part of the petitioners, also directed the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) to file its reply to the said affidavits a week after their filing before the court.

At the outset of the hearing on the petitions by Kashmir Singh, Dara Singh and Raghbir Singh, senior advocate and former Delhi High Court Judge, Jaspal Singh, appearing for the SGPC, pointed out that the copies of the judgement filed by the state government and the other petitioners were “incorrect and defective”.

The SPGC counsel, who placed on record the certified copy of the High Court judgement before the Bench, alleged that “deliberate omissions” of certain vital and important portions had been done in the copies of the order filed by the opposite parties.

In an application filed before the court, the SGPC claimed that though the true copy of the High Court order was received by its Registry on August 21, the petitioners had preferred to appeal before the apex court against the judgement on August 19 itself.

If the copies filed by the petitioners were compared with the certified copy it showed that “substantial portions of it have not been produced by the petitioners before the court. It is submitted that this is a very serious matter and suitable action is warranted against them,” the SGPC said.

The High Court, in its August 14 judgement, had quashed the Amarinder Singh government’s July 5, 2002, notification restoring the SGJC that existed before its reconstitution in January 1999 with Kashmir Singh, Dara Singh and Raghbir Singh as its members.

The action of the present state government was challenged in the High Court by Manmohan Singh Brar, Ajwant Singh and Amrik Singh, who were appointed as the members of the commission as per the 1999 order by the then Parkash Singh Badal government after the 1998 SGPC polls.

The decision was challenged in the Supreme Court by the Punjab Government as well as Kashmir Singh and the two others, whose membership had been quashed by the High Court.