NEW DELHI—Following the complaint filed by the Dashmesh Sewa Society of New Delhi, the Supreme Court of India has directed the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee to conduct its elections by end of year 2012. It has further been ruled by the Supreme Court to conduct fresh electoral rolls for the elections if needed.
The decision was passed by a Bench comprising Justices RM Lodha and Anil Dave who also ruled that only Sikhs would be allowed to cast their votes. In addition, all voters must posses valid identity card issued by the Election Commission.
The decision was announced after the bench quashed the order by Delhi High Court allowing elections without first conducting fresh electoral rolls. It was stated that – if found necessary, fresh electoral rolls and delimitation could be undertaken if found necessary.
It has been reported that the Delhi Government argued that around 1.5 lakh votes were bogus, this argument was however disposed by the Supreme Court on basis that the claim was hard to accept. The bench asserted that following the publication of draft electoral rolls, only 5,000 complaints have been received so far.
