The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday restored the voting rights of Sehajdhari (non-baptised) Sikhs in elections to the Shriomani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, the Sikhs’ highest religious body.
This has made the current SGPC body redundant, with the court mandating that Sehajdhari Sikhs be included in the voting list and fresh elections held.
The orders were passed by a full bench comprising Justices Surya Kant, M.M.S. Bedi and Muttaci Jeyapaul, which allowed a petition by the Sehajdhari Sikh Federation (SSF) challenging an October 8, 2003 Central notification depriving Sehajdhari Sik-hs of their voting rights.
The petitioners challenged the Central notification “whereby Sehajdhari Sikhs are not being considered as Sikhs in view of the impugned amended Section 49 and Section 92 of the Gurdwara Act”. They said the original law had declared Sehajdhari Sikhs as qualified electors for SGPC elections, and that the Supreme Court in several judgments had held that the state could not regulate the definition of religion.
The order comes just ahead of Punjab’s Assembly polls. Political parties are already trying to score points, with Capt. Amarinder Singh, state Congress chief, welcoming the verdict, saying “it vindicated my stand that Sehajdhari Sikhs had the right to vote in SGPC elections... but (were) denied (it) in an arbitrary manner by the Akali Dal government”.
The ruling Akali Dal appeared defensive. Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal’s media adviser Harcharan Singh Bains said: “We will read the judgment, then react. We don’t want to issue irresponsible statements like the Congress.”