NEW YORK—The Sikh Sangat of New York has welcomed the decision by Monroe County to lift the ban on wearing kirpans at the Gurdwara of Rochester based in New York. The decision was sent via email and made public to the sangat. The decision was announced by Judge Mathew A. Rosenbaum, Supreme Court Justice in State of New York.
It was alleged that certain trustees in the Gurdwara had submitted affidavits in court which barred Sikhs from wearing kirpans within the premises of the Gurdwara. The matter was brought to the notice of Akal Takht Sahib which had formed a special committee to investigate the matter. Based on the reports of the special committee, the 5 Singh Sahibs had given an ultimatum to the Rochester Gurdwara Committee to clarify the matter.
The trustees of the Gurdwara later retracted their stance and allowed kirpans less than 6 inches long. This stance was however not accepted by Sri Akal Takht Sahib and ultimately, the trustees had to revert the Gurdwara clauses. The ban was ultimately lifted by Judge Mathew A. Rosenbaum.
The court decision however does not resolve the matter, as mediation still needs to occur between the current and previous management parties of the Gurdwara. The dispute over the kirpan arose after a lawsuit involving the trustees of the Gurdwara and local Amritdhari sangat. It is believed that the trustees had placed a ban on kirpans to keep amritdhari sangat from attending the Gurdwara. Aside from imposing a ban on the kirpan, one of the five articles of the Sikh faith, Santokh Badesha, the head trustee, had ridiculed the kirpan and the kesh.
