The polls to elect a brand new common home for the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) are anticipated to happen in June. The Gurdwara Elections Fee has set April 16 because the date for finalising the electoral rolls, after which it might write to the union ministry for house to announce the election.
A SAD delegation final week had met justice SS Saron (retd), commissioner gurdwara elections, final week who prolonged the final date for submitting objections from January 24 to March 10. (HT File)
“Our preparations are almost over. Once the electoral rolls are finalised, we would submit to the ministry of home affairs for further action, which is announcement of the polls,” mentioned a functionary of the gurdwara election fee that oversees the conduct of the polls, on anonymity.
Final time the election befell in 2011. Nevertheless, the elected Home turned practical in 2016 after a case filed by the sehajdhari Sikhs within the Supreme Court docket was determined. The sehajdharis had moved the apex courtroom difficult the choice of the ministry of house affairs denying them the precise to vote.
The case was determined after the house ministry filed an enterprise within the SC that the All India Gurdwara Act 1925 had been amended, revoking sehajdharis’ proper to vote.
In 2016, Kirpal Singh Badungar turned the SGPC president, changing Avtar Singh Makkar. After that, from 2017 to 2019, Gobind Singh Longowal remained head of the gurdwara physique.
After Longowal, in 2020, Bibi Jagir Kaur was elected head of the Sikhs’ establishment for a 12 months and in 2021, Harjinder Singh Dhami was elected as president who continues to go the physique and was re-elected within the annual election of workplace bearers held in 2024.
Date of submitting of objections prolonged
The gurdwara fee has prolonged the final date for submitting objection to March 10, after Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) challenged large-scale bogus and duplication of voters within the electoral rolls. A SAD delegation final week had met justice SS Saron (retd), commissioner gurdwara elections, final week who prolonged the final date for submitting objections from January 24 to March 10.
SAD had alleged that numerous non-Sikhs have been included within the electoral record. The ultimate electoral rolls could be made public on April 16, introduced a functionary of the gurdwara fee on the request of anonymity. Within the earlier record, a complete of fifty lakh voters had been registered for the polls, which is now being appended.
Who can vote
As per All-India Gurdwara Act 1925, a Sikh with unshorn hair could be a voter within the SGPC election and an amritdhari (baptised) Sikh can contest the election.
No readability on variety of constituencies
There isn’t any readability on the variety of constituencies that may go to polls when the elections are declared as a separate gurdwara physique (Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Administration Committee) has been carved out of SGPC, which is within the means of electing the workplace bearers. The HSGMC elections for over 40 constituencies had been held on January 19.
“We have no clarity about how many constituencies will be constituted for the SGPC polls, particularly when a separate gurdwara body is in existence in Haryana,” requested SGPC chief secretary Kulwant Singh Mannan. The gurdwara election physique hasn’t dominated on the matter but.
The final SGPC elections had been held in 170 constituencies, which included 157 in Punjab, 11 in Haryana, and one every in Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh. Other than it, 15 members are co-opted, with 4 from Punjab, three from Delhi, two every from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and one every from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand. Six members of the clergy are ex-officio members.