NEW DELHI—The Supreme Court of India on December 23 deferred hearing on the petition challenging legitimacy of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhik Committee onto February 9, 2018. Notably, this petition was moved by a Kurkshetra based SGPC member Harbhajan Singh shortly after constitution of the HSGPC in 2014.
Sharing the development with Sikh24 earlier today, HSGPC General Secretary Joga Singh informed that a meeting of the HSGPC general body has been called upon at Gurdwara Cheeka Sahib in Kaithal (Haryana) on January 16. Gurdwara Cheeka Sahib is currently being used as a Headquarter of HSGPC by its ad-hoc committee led by Jagdish Singh Jhinda.
“We have a lot of important issues to discuss, hence, the meeting has been called early in January. We hope to discuss key strategies for next year,” S. Joga Singh told Sikh24.
The HSGPC was constituted by the Bhupinder Singh Hooda led Congress government of Haryana on July 11, 2014. Before the constitution of the HSGPC, all Gurdwaras and SGPC institutions in the state were under control of SGPC, which has headquarters in Sri Amritsar Sahib. The SGPC claimed that the HSGPC formation was unconstitutional, as per the All India Gurdwara Act of 1925.
SGPC has since challenged the HSGPC’s existence by moving a petition in the court. The SGPC had also refused to return keys to various Gurdwaras in Haryana, to the HSGPC, even though it was given legal status by the Haryana government.
