New Delhi, July 26
The Supreme Court today granted two weeks’ time to the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to respond to the contentions of the Sehajdhari Sikh Federation (SSF) that the Sikh temporal body had no right to appeal on the Sehajdharis’ voting rights issue.

A Bench comprising Justices RM Lodha and Anil Dave adjourned the hearing, slated for today, as the SGPC sought time to file its reply.

In its affidavit, the SSF has contended that the Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict restoring the Sehajdharis’ voting right had attained finality as the Union Government had decided against challenging the HC judgment.

Further, the SGPC election held on September 18, 2011 had become a nullity as the SC had allowed the conduct of the poll with a clear rider that the election result would be subject to the HC verdict.

Since the HC had quashed the Centre’s October 8, 2003, notification that had taken away the Sehajdharis’ voting rights, it was only proper that a fresh poll was conducted to elect the SGPC, the federation contended.

The SSF pointed out that the SC had refused to allow the newly elected SGPC Board to function and allowed only an ad hoc executive body consisting of members from the previous Board to manage the day-to-day affairs of the SGPC and the institutions run by it.

With no properly elected SGPC in place, no one claiming to be the SGPC could have moved the SC, challenging the HC verdict, SSF said.