Badals get relief from Supreme Court on dual constitution row

New Delhi, November 1

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the proceedings before a Hoshiarpur court in the alleged case of forgery and cheating filed against Sukhbir Singh Badal, Parkash Singh Badal and Daljit Singh Cheema in the controversy over dual constitution of SAD.

A Bench comprising Justices S Abdul Nazeer and V Ramasubramanian issued a notice and stayed the proceedings in the criminal complaint before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hoshiarpur.

Hoshiarpur resident Balwant Singh Khera had filed a criminal complaint before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate in 2009 accusing SAD of submitting two different constitutions — one with the Gurdwara Election Commission (GEC) and the second with the Election Commission of India (ECI) to seek recognition as a political party.

The petitioners — Sukhbir Singh Badal, Prakash Singh Badal and Cheema — moved the apex court challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court order, which rejected their plea seeking quashing of the complaint.

Senior advocate RS Cheema appeared for Sukhbir and senior advocate KV Viswanathan appeared for Parkash Singh Badal assisted by advocates from Karanjawala & Co. Advocate Sandeep Kapur appeared for Cheema. The petitions were filed by Karanjawala & Co.

It was argued before the court that being religious does not run contrary to the principles of secularism and merely because a political outfit is contesting elections to a gurdwara committee does not mean it is not secular. The criminal case with allegations of forgery and cheating over the constitution of the party filed before the ECI and GEC therefore had no basis, it was argued.

The complaint was based on the allegation that the party had given a declaration to abide by the principles of secularism in its constitution filed before the EC, while it contests SGPC polls thereby being a religious party. — IANS