CHANDIGARH: On May 31 the 38-member Haryana Sikh Gurdwara (Management) Ad-Hoc Committee, which was constituted on December 1, 2022, through an order issued by the Home Department of the Haryana Government, whose gazette notification was also published,
Meanwhile, Punjab and Haryana High Court advocate Hemant Kumar has appealed to the state government that since according to the existing Section 16(8) of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara (Management) Act, 2014, the tenure of the above-mentioned ad-hoc committee can be only for 18 months from its formation, or till the formation of the elected regular committee after the election, whichever is earlier, therefore, as per the said legal provision, as amended by the Haryana Legislative Assembly in December 2022, it is now necessary for the state government to constitute a new temporary (ad-hoc) committee, whose maximum tenure can also be up to 18 months from its formation or till the completion of the election of the regular committee, whichever is earlier. Therefore, it is necessary to constitute a new Haryana Sikh Gurdwara (Management) Ad-hoc Committee from last Saturday, June 1.
This is also necessary because for the formation of regular Haryana Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee, the election process in all the 40 designated wards of the state, under which the Haryana Gurudwara Election Commission, constituted under the chairmanship of retired High Court Judge (Justice) H.S. Bhalla, had scheduled to conduct elections in February-March this year, but in view of the announcement of the Lok Sabha general elections, it was postponed and now possibly the said elections can be conducted only after the upcoming general elections of Haryana Legislative Assembly, which are scheduled in September-October 2024.
Hemant also said that since the current section 16(8) of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara (Management) Act, 2014 mentions the formation of a 41-member ad-hoc committee and not a maximum 41-member committee, the legal validity of the 38-member ad-hoc committee issued on December 1, 2022 under the signature of the Home Secretary of the Haryana Government, TVSN Prasad (currently also the Chief Secretary of the state), naturally raises questions because under the said legal section 16(8), only a 41-member ad-hoc committee can be formed, not a committee with less members than that. Now it will be worth seeing whether the state government nominates 38 or 41 members as before in the newly constituted Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Ad-hoc Committee, as required by law.
It is worth noting that in September 2022, the Supreme Court had declared the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara (Management) Act, 2014 as constitutional and legally valid.