Apex court nod to SGPC elections

The Supreme Court gave the green signal for the holding of Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee elections in Punjab on September 18.

The Supreme Court on Friday gave the green signal for the holding of Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC) elections in Punjab on September 18.

The court said the poll results would,however,be subject to the final outcome of the case pending in the Punjab and Haryana HC vis-a-vis denial of voting rights to Sehajdhari Sikhs. A Bench of Justices J M Panchal and H L Gokhale said the Punjab and Haryana HC,if it decides to do so,shall hear and pronounce a final order on the sects voting rights within a month.

On September 1,the HC had held the Sehajdhari Sikhs challenge to be infructuous after Central government counsel,Harbaghwan Singh,assured that the 2003 notification had been withdrawn. But shortly after,Home Minister P Chidambaram told Parliament that the notification had not been withdrawn and there was no decision by the ministry to this effect.

On September 9,the HC bench went on to suspend the earlier order following a recall petition filed by the Central government. This effectively meant that the October 2003 notification continued to be effective. The Sehajdharis had then approached the SC against the HC order dated September 9. The issue had led to a major controversy in Punjab politics and the Sikh community.