Centre asks SC to quash gurdwara Act

R. Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, February 28

The BJP-led NDA government at the Centre has pleaded with the Supreme Court to quash the Haryana Sikh Gurdwaras Management (HSGM) Act 2014, contending that the state Assembly did not have the power to enact such a law.

Through the law, Haryana had sought to wrest control of 52 notified Sikh shrines in the state from the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee (SGPC) and hand them over to the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC). The SC, however, stayed the takeover move by ordering status quo on August 7, 2014, on a PIL filed by Harbhajan Singh challenging the Act.

In an affidavit filed in response to the SC notice, the Centre opposed the state Act pleading the SGPC had been given the status of an inter-state body corporate, which was not confined to one state and was rather spread beyond Punjab to Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

This status had been given under the central laws, the Sikh Gurdwaras Act 1925 and the Punjab Re-organisation Act 1966, the affidavit filed through the Home Ministry said. Such a body could be “directed and controlled only by the Central Government. There is no provision for the state legislature to enact a law on the inter-state body corporate,” it maintained.

The state Assembly had passed the HSGM Act in July, 2014, when the Congress government headed by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was in place in the state and the NDA had come to power at the Centre. The Centre’s affidavit makes it clear that there is no change in the Centre’s stand against the HSGM Act despite the BJP coming to power in Haryana.

“The stand or understanding of the State of Haryana that it has the power and jurisdiction to pass the impugned Act by virtue of Entry 32 in List II of Schedule VII of the Constitution of India is misplaced,” the Centre said. “The state government has no authority or power to make any law on an inter-state body corporate. The right is solely reserved for Union of India as the subject of religious institutions correlates to Entry 28 List III,” it said.

Further the state Act was never placed before the President for his assent as required under Article 254 (2) of the Constitution. It was placed before the Haryana Governor. “The Act has therefore not complied with Article 254 (2) and is ultra vires the Constitution,” advocate Satinder Gulati said quoting the Centre’s affidavit.

Of the 52 notified gurdwaras in Haryana, eight are categorised as historic shrines and placed in the first schedule, while 17 having incomes above Rs 20 lakh a year are on the second list and the remaining 27 on the third list. Citing as many as 13 grounds for striking down the HSGM Act, 2014, the PIL contends that the newly enacted law had “wide ranging ramifications” for Sikhs living all over the country. SGPC has also sought to become a petitioner in the case on which the SC has issued notice.