VANCOUVER, BC, Canada—A Vancouver court has declared Ross Street Gurdwara’s membership list invalid.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Stephen F. Kelleher said in a ruling released on Monday that “a new membership enrollment and a new election must take place.”
He noted: “The Executive has enrolled members without requiring adherence to the bylaws. The Executive has permitted persons to become members without physically attending at the office. That is exactly what the bylaws were amended to require.”
The judge asked both sides to resolve the matter on their own and added: “I will reconvene the hearing if there is disagreement on any aspect of implementing the remedy of a new election.”
LAST October, the Khalsa Diwan Society had announced in a press release that as “only one slate of candidates” was nominated by the October 8, 2014 deadline, Kuldip S. Thandi and his slate were elected unopposed to the executive committee for 2015-2017. Thandi took over as the new president.
However, the Sangat Seva Society in a statement on October 9, 2014, said: “We are still in litigation and nothing has been worked out or resolved. Lawyers are communicating and they have been served that no election can take place until everything is resolved.”
THANDI told The VOICE on Monday: “I don’t think an election will be held before one year – maybe end of 2016 or end of 2017.”
SIKH Sangat said in a statement that the gurdwara’s executive’s “actions have cost the community hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not millions of dollars) over the past years. This was not just limited to this enrollment but the behaviour was consistent for a long time. They did it during the last election and many times before that. They got away therefore they just kept going with it but finally the truth has caught up. We now have just decision from the courts that rights a wrong. The money wasted in courts was avoidable and we begged them to do things fairly. Now we will start from scratch and things will be done fairly. They will probably appeal this overwhelming decision and waste more donations. The cost for this judgement will probably be more than half a million dollars but what’s it to them? It’s not their money they are using.
“If they had done things fairly to start everything would have been dealt with and there would be no donations wasted. We spend from our own pockets and they use the Gurdawara donations. We must stop this for all future executives. Things must be done fairly.”
The Sikh Sangat added: “We want to thank everyone in the community for being patient. The gurdwara will return to its glory days. We will fix the problems together. Along with better religious programs we will once again get the youngsters involved. Together we will make it happen.
