Push­ing the Sikh world, es­pe­cially the Dec­can Sikhs into the throes of an­other ag­i­ta­tion for the pro­tec­tion of the sanc­tity and ho­n­our of Takht Hazur Sahib, de­fy­ing all or­ders of the Au­rangabad Bench of the Bom­bay High Court over the last 2 years, and mak­ing false promises to the Sikh com­mu­nity in Nanded and Mum­bai, the Shiv­sena-led, BJP-sup­ported Ma­ha­rash­tra gov­ern­ment is hell-bent on pass­ing new leg­is­la­tion ush­er­ing in a new anti-de­mo­c­ra­tic leg­is­la­tion to con­trol the man­age­ment of Takht Sri Abchal Na­gar Hazur Sahib Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee, with­out con­sult­ing Sikhs at all.  WSN ed­i­tor Jag­mo­han Singh analy­ses the sit­u­a­tion and what is in store af­ter the dis­missal of the con­tempt pe­ti­tion of Nam­bar­dar Jagdeep Singh on 26 April 2024.

Notwith­stand­ing the deep re­li­gious con­cerns, protests, and sub­mis­sions of the Sikhs in Ma­ha­rash­tra and around the world, the gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra is de­ter­mined to take full con­trol of Takht Hazur Sahib, Nanded, through ad­min­is­tra­tive, le­gal, and po­lit­i­cal ma­nip­u­la­tion.  The Dec­can Sikhs stand at the thresh­old of an ag­i­ta­tion to pro­tect their re­li­gious rights and pre­serve the sanc­tity and in­de­pen­dent sta­tus of the Takht Hazur Sahib.

Cat­e­gor­i­cally speak­ing, this is Ma­ha­rash­tra’s un­due in­ter­fer­ence in the re­li­gious af­fairs of the Sikhs and this is un­nec­es­sary and un­ac­cept­able.

The serene sanc­tity of Takht Sri Abchal Na­gar Hazur Sahib, one of the holi­est cen­tres in Sikhism -the place where the Tenth Mas­ter merged with the Almighty, -is un­der threat as the Ma­ha­rash­tra gov­ern­ment con­tin­ues its re­lent­less pur­suit to im­pose con­trol over its man­age­ment. In a se­ries of ma­noeu­vres that defy court or­ders and dis­re­gard the sen­ti­ments of the Sikh com­mu­nity, the gov­ern­men­t’s ac­tions has stirred the com­mu­nity into re­flec­tion on legally backed gov­er­nance of Gur­d­wara in­sti­tu­tions.

In a se­ries of ma­noeu­vres that defy court or­ders and dis­re­gard the sen­ti­ments of the Sikh com­mu­nity, the gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra’s ac­tions has stirred the com­mu­nity into re­flec­tion on legally backed gov­er­nance of Gur­d­wara in­sti­tu­tions. 

Since 1956, the process of hold­ing elec­tions for the Takht Hazur Sahib Board has been marred by ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties and de­lays, prompt­ing Sikhs to re­sort to protests, hunger strikes, and le­gal bat­tles time and again. De­spite di­rec­tives from the Bom­bay High Court, in­clud­ing a re­cent or­der to con­duct elec­tions within a spec­i­fied time­frame, the Ma­ha­rash­tra gov­ern­ment has shown bla­tant dis­re­gard for ju­di­cial man­dates.

At the 26 April hear­ing, dis­pos­ing off the con­tempt pe­ti­tion of Nam­bar­dar Jag­jeet Singh, Jus­tice Mangesh Patil, and Jus­tice Shailesh Brahme took cog­nizance of the com­mu­ni­ca­tion from the Rev­enue De­part­ment, dated 25 April 2024, which seeks de­fer­ment of elec­tions as the gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra is en­gaged in the process of fram­ing new leg­is­la­tion, pur­port­edly based on the Jus­tice Jag­mo­han Singh Bha­tia Com­mit­tee.

The last elec­tions to the Takht Hazur Sahib Board were held in 2019. Fresh elec­tions were due in 2022, the process for which was to com­mence in 2021, six months prior to the term of ex­pi­ra­tion of the Board.  Dis­pos­ing of the pe­ti­tion of Nam­bar­dar Jagdeep Singh on 27 March 2023, Jus­tice S. G. Cha­pal­gaonkar and Jus­tice Nitin W. Sam­bre on 27 March 2023 di­rected the State of Ma­ha­rash­tra to take a de­ci­sion re­gard­ing the elec­tion process within three months of the or­der. As no step was taken, af­ter sub­mit­ting many re­minders, Nam­bar­dar Jagdeep Singh filed a con­tempt pe­ti­tion on 8 July 2023. Tak­ing up the con­tempt pe­ti­tion, in the 18 Jan­u­ary 2024 or­der, Jus­tice Mangesh S. Patil and Shailesh P. Brahme chas­tised the state gov­ern­ment to con­duct the elec­tions. This was fol­lowed with an­other warn­ing on 5 April by the judges.  How­ever, on 26 April 2024, the Jus­tices ac­cepted the Ma­ha­rash­tra gov­ern­men­t’s sub­mis­sion that the gov­ern­ment had no in­ten­tion to con­duct the elec­tions un­der the old Act and have con­sti­tuted a Com­mit­tee for a new Act.

Singh Sabha Mum­bai prods Ma­ha­rash­tra to with­hold Takht Hazur Sahib law

Nev­er­the­less Jus­tice Mangesh S. Patil and Shailesh P. Brahme ob­served that “By the or­der dated 27.03.2023 in Writ Pe­ti­tion 1005/​2022 for the rea­sons recorded therein, the State Gov­ern­ment was di­rected to take de­ci­sion about hold­ing of the elec­tions to the mem­bers of the Board of the re­spon­dent no.3 therein that is the Pres­i­dent, Gu­rud­wara Board, Nanded Sikh Gu­rud­wara Sachk­hand Shri Hazur Apchal­na­gar Sahib. Sim­i­larly, by the or­der dated 18.01.2024, we had pointed out as to how it was im­per­a­tive that the State fol­lowed the law and rules for con­duct of elec­tions.”

The Judges fur­ther ob­served that, “The fact re­mains that till the new rules are in place, the law gov­ern­ing the fact sit­u­a­tion i.e. the pro­vi­sions of Nanded Sikh Gu­rud­wara Sachk­hand Shri Hazur Apchal­na­gar Sahib Act, 1956 and the Elec­tion Rules framed therein, are in place.” It is clearly im­plied and the judges re­marked dur­ing that the hear­ing that the gov­ern­ment should con­duct elec­tions as per the old laws and that the gov­ern­ment is per­haps in­tend­ing that the ag­i­ta­tion goes on. They have al­lowed the pe­ti­tioner to file a fresh case against the State gov­ern­ment.

The gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra’s com­mu­nique to the Bom­bay High Court states, “How­ever, given that a draft of a new act is un­der con­sid­er­a­tion by a cab­i­net sub­com­mit­tee, any elec­tions held would be­come null and void once the new act is en­forced. There­fore, the gov­ern­ment has di­rected that a re­quest be made to the Hon. Court to al­low de­fer­ring the elec­tions. This mat­ter has been sub­mit­ted to the Chief Min­is­ter’s of­fice for a de­ci­sion.”

The fact re­mains that till the new rules are in place, the law gov­ern­ing the fact sit­u­a­tion i.e. the pro­vi­sions of Nanded Sikh Gu­rud­wara Sachk­hand Shri Hazur Apchal­na­gar Sahib Act, 1956 and the Elec­tion Rules framed therein, are in place.

Jus­tice Mangesh S. Patil and Shailesh P. Brahme

While the le­gal bat­tle was on in courts, the gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra was en­gaged in chi­canery and po­lit­i­cal ma­neou­vres. The gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra amended Sec­tion 11 of the Takht Abchal­na­gar Hazur Sahib Act in 2015 usurp­ing the role of ap­point­ing the Pres­i­dent of the Board un­der the Act. Then in 2023, in or­der to avoid tak­ing a stand in court in re­sponse to the con­tempt pe­ti­tion of Nam­bar­dar Jagdeep Singh, the gov­ern­ment of Ma­harsh­tra, through a no­ti­fi­ca­tion took a gi­ant sin­is­ter leap of de­fraud­ing the Sikhs by say­ing that out of 17 mem­bers of the Takht Com­mit­tee in their pro­posed new law, 12 would be nom­i­nated by the gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rasthra.

As stated in the pre­sent com­mu­ni­ca­tion to the Court, the doc­u­ment un­abashedly says, “Fol­low­ing the com­plaints re­ceived in 2019 re­gard­ing the Nanded Gu­rud­wara Board, the gov­ern­ment, fol­low­ing due process, had neu­tral­ized the Gu­rud­wara Board through a no­ti­fi­ca­tion dated June 29, 2022.” Such no­ti­fi­ca­tions were to ap­point ad­min­is­tra­tors to the Takht Hazur Sahib, while there is no such pro­vi­sion in the Takht Hazur Sahib Act, 1956.

The gov­ern­ment com­mu­nique once again lays bare the de­signs of the State of Ma­ha­rash­tra. It says, “Against this back­ground, fol­low­ing the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Jus­tice Bha­tia Com­mit­tee to man­age the Gu­rud­wara Board more ef­fi­ciently, a pro­posal was made to en­act a new law, “Takht Sachk­hand Shri. Hazur Apchal­na­gar Sahib Gu­rud­wara Act, 2023,” re­plac­ing the Nanded Sikh Gu­rud­wara Sachk­hand Shri. Hazur Apchal­na­gar Sahib Act, 1956. This pro­posal was ap­proved in the cab­i­net meet­ing on Feb­ru­ary 5, 2024. How­ever, con­sid­er­ing the on­go­ing protests and hunger strikes by the Sikh com­mu­nity in Nanded against this draft, the cab­i­net de­cided on Feb­ru­ary 14, 2024, to form a com­mit­tee un­der the Min­is­ter of Rev­enue to study the draft of the new act. Con­se­quently, a com­mit­tee was es­tab­lished as per the gov­ern­ment res­o­lu­tion dated March 15, 2024, and it is ex­pected that the fi­nal draft of the pro­posed “Takht Sachk­hand Shri. Hazur Apchal­na­gar Sahib Gu­rud­wara Act, 2024″ will be com­pleted af­ter re­ceiv­ing the com­mit­tee’s re­port.”

Ma­ha­rash­tra’s pro­pa­ganda on new Takht Hazur Sa­heb Act “con­cocted and mis­lead­ing”

The re­cent gov­ern­ment doc­u­ment sub­mit­ted to the Au­rang­bad Bench of the Bom­bay High Court reads, “Fol­low­ing more than fifty years since the en­act­ment of the Nanded Sikh Gu­rud­wara Sachk­hand Shri. Hazur Apchal­na­gar Sahib Act, 1956, a com­mit­tee was ap­pointed un­der the chair­man­ship of Jus­tice Bha­tia by the gov­ern­ment res­o­lu­tion dated Jan­u­ary 21, 2014. The com­mit­tee was tasked with rec­om­mend­ing ways to ef­fi­ciently man­age the Gu­rud­wara’s af­fairs, elim­i­nate out­dated pro­vi­sions, and in­cor­po­rate new ones as nec­es­sary. The com­mit­tee’s re­port was re­ceived by the gov­ern­ment on Au­gust 8, 2014. The rec­om­men­da­tions con­tained in the re­port were un­der con­sid­er­a­tion by the gov­ern­ment.”

Read the set of lies of the gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra. One, the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Jus­tice Jag­mo­han Singh Bha­tia Com­mit­tee were never made pub­lic. Two, there was no con­sul­ta­tion with the Sikhs of Nanded, Ma­ha­rash­tra or the Sikh rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the SGPC or any other Sikh re­li­gious lead­ers re­gard­ing the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Jus­tice Bha­tia Com­mit­tee. Three, Ad­vo­cate Dal­jeet Singh, the son of late Jus­tice Jag­mo­han Singh Bha­tia, in an open let­ter to the Chief Min­is­ter of Ma­ha­rash­tra has de­bunked the gov­ern­ment pub­lic stand that they are con­sid­er­ing the pro­vi­sions of the Jus­tice Bha­tia Com­mit­tee. Fourthly, in a meet­ing with the lead­er­ship of Singh Sabha Mum­bai Dadar, the Chief Min­is­ter and the Deputy Chief Min­is­ter had promised that noth­ing re­lat­ing to the new leg­is­la­tion will be done with­out con­sult­ing the Sikh lead­er­ship and that the new law is un­der sus­pen­sion for the time be­ing.

So­cial Ac­tivist Jagdeep Singh Nanded chal­lenges Ma­ha­rash­tra’s twists and turns on Takht Hazur Sa­heb Man­age­ment

The in­ten­tion of the gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra is clear. They have no in­ten­tion of con­duct­ing elec­tions un­der the old leg­is­la­tion. It may not be wrong to say that they have no in­ten­tions to hold elec­tions at all, they want to con­tinue their in­ter­fer­ence with the ap­point­ment of state-cho­sen ad­min­is­tra­tors.

This uni­lat­eral ap­proach has been met with ve­he­ment op­po­si­tion, with Sikhs de­cry­ing the gov­ern­men­t’s at­tempts to im­pose anti-de­mo­c­ra­tic clauses and uni­lat­er­ally en­act new leg­is­la­tion, un­der­mines the au­ton­omy of Takht Hazur Sahib. Early this year, for the first time ever, from the por­tals of Takht Hazur Sahib, a call was given to the Sikh pop­u­la­tion to op­pose the move of the gov­ern­ment to take con­trol over Takht Hazur Sahib. It was clearly con­strued as a di­rect in­ter­fer­ence in Sikh re­li­gious af­fairs. Sadly, the gov­ern­ment re­sorted to stonewalling mea­sures but has not has shown no in­ten­tion of chang­ing its po­si­tion.

The Ma­ha­rash­tra gov­ern­ment has cited on­go­ing ef­forts to frame new leg­is­la­tion as jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for de­fer­ring elec­tions. The gov­ern­men­t’s mo­tives are ques­tion­able and its com­mit­ment to up­hold­ing the prin­ci­ples of jus­tice and re­li­gious free­dom is cloudy.

“We are a war­rior race and we will not budge to pres­sures of the gov­ern­ment. I ap­peal to the Sikh lead­er­ship in Nanded, Mum­bai, Pun­jab and the rest of the world to join hands to pro­tect Takht Hazur Sahib from the clutches of the gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra.”

Nam­bar­dar Jagdeep Singh, Pe­ti­tioner

As the con­tro­versy es­ca­lates, the Sikh com­mu­nity re­mains stead­fast in its re­solve to pro­tect the sanc­tity of Takht Sri Abchal Na­gar Hazur Sahib. Calls for trans­parency, ac­count­abil­ity, and gen­uine con­sul­ta­tion with Sikh stake­hold­ers echo loudly, de­mand­ing an end to gov­ern­ment in­ter­fer­ence and a re­turn to the prin­ci­ples of de­mo­c­ra­tic gov­er­nance and re­li­gious au­ton­omy.

Nam­bar­dar Jagdeep Singh, while speak­ing to the World Sikh News said, “We are a war­rior race and we will not budge to pres­sures of the gov­ern­ment. I ap­peal to the Sikh lead­er­ship in Nanded, Mum­bai, Pun­jab and the rest of the world to join hands to pro­tect Takht Hazur Sahib from the clutches of the gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra.”

In the face of ad­ver­sity, Sikhs stand united, de­ter­mined to safe­guard their re­li­gious her­itage and up­hold the time­less prin­ci­ples of Sikhism em­bod­ied by Takht Sri Abchal Na­gar Hazur Sahib. The bat­tle for jus­tice and re­li­gious free­dom con­tin­ues, fu­elled by the un­wa­ver­ing spirit of the Sikh com­mu­nity and its un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to truth and right­eous­ness. The gov­ern­ment is lead­ing the Sikhs to a state where the Sikhs will evolve a self-con­trolled sys­tem of gov­er­nance with­out any role what­so­ever to any gov­ern­ment of the day.