Appointment of jathedars by SGPC challenged in court

A Chandigarh court has sought a response from the Centre and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) on a plea challenging the appointment and removal of temporal heads by the Sikh body.

The court of the Civil Judge (Junior Division) issued a notice in this regard on Wednesday on the petition filed by Gurmukh Singh, a resident of Amritsar, through advocates Terminder Singh and Onkar Singh.

The petitioner has sought a permanent injunction restraining the SGPC from appointing or removing jathedars of Sikh Takhts.

Currently, jathedars of three of the five Sikh temporal seats — Akal Takht, Takht Damdama Sahib and Takht Kesgarh Sahib — are appointed by the SGPC.

The jathedars of the other two Takhts — Patna Sahib in Patna and Hazur Sahib at Nanded in Maharashtra — located outside Punjab, are appointed by their separate management committees.

The petition has been filed in the Chandigarh court in the backdrop of the recent removal and appointment of jathedars of the temporal seats in Punjab, including the Akal Takht.

The court issued the notice to the Centre through the Home Secretary, Chandigarh.

The petitioner had also sought a declaration annulling the appointment of the new jathedars, citing provisions of the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925 and Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution.

Gurmukh Singh alleged in his plea that the SGPC had been interfering in the matters of the Sikh community against it mandate.

He said the SGPC was constituted in 1920 for the administration of Sikh gurdwaras, and not to decide on the appointment or removal of temporal heads as they weren’t employees of any body.

The petitioner contended that a Jathedar is a “spiritual leader chosen or elected by consensus by the Amritdhari community”.

After hearing the arguments, the court said, “At this stage, no ground is made out to grant interim injunction to the plaintiff and this court deems it fit to hear the opposite party before passing any order on interim injunction.” The court has fixed May 19 as the date for next hearing.