With the ex­ten­sion win­dow to the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee till 28 Au­gust near­ing soon and the Delhi gov­ern­ment, reel­ing un­der Covid19 sec­ond wave se­vere im­pact, de­cid­ing not to con­duct the DS­GMC elec­tions as pre­sumed to be held in the sec­ond week of July, a pre­car­i­ous le­gal sit­u­a­tion is on the cards with the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Act 1971 silent on a sit­u­a­tion like post­pone­ment of elec­tions due to a pan­demic. Con­test­ing can­di­dates are wor­ried but the lead­er­ship of all par­ties is en­gaged in im­age-build­ing ex­er­cises pur­su­ing non-DS­GMC af­fairs. WSN Delhi Desk’s Gurmeet Singh re­ports.

DSGMC ELEC­TIONS WERE POST­PONED barely 48 hours be­fore the polling date 25 April cit­ing Covid19 up­surge. Since then, all the con­test­ing par­ties are en­gaged in an im­age-build­ing ex­er­cise touch­ing is­sues which have noth­ing to do with DS­GMC and their du­ties to­wards their con­stituents. Most of the can­di­dates have a worry on their mind with the ques­tion of whether if the elec­tions are post­poned be­yond 28 Au­gust, then there is the like­li­hood of the en­tire elec­tion process be­gin­ning afresh.

Un­der pres­sure from Sikh San­gat and ac­tivists, de­spite the bravado of con­test­ing par­ties, recog­nis­ing the im­pact of the Coro­n­avirus, the Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions of the Na­tional Cap­i­tal Re­gion gov­ern­ment of Delhi had no­ti­fied post­pone­ment of the DS­GMC elec­tions on 23 April, “till the sit­u­a­tion im­proves.”

Sources in the Delhi gov­ern­ment said that Delhi Chief Min­is­ter Arvind Ke­jri­wal is averse to the idea of con­duct­ing the DS­GMC elec­tions as of now, even though the Covid19 sit­u­a­tion in Delhi has shown im­prove­ment and there is a dras­tic re­duc­tion in the num­bers of those in­fected with the Coro­n­avirus.  How­ever, as seen in the ris­ing num­ber of tourists in Man­ali and Shimla, throw­ing all Covid pre­cau­tions to the winds, Ke­jri­wal’s cau­tion­ary ap­proach is un­der­stand­able. 

“As of now, no DS­GMC elec­tions are hap­pen­ing. The sug­ges­tion that elec­tions be held on 18 July has been turned down by Delhi Chief Min­is­ter on grounds of the Covid19 pan­demic.”

Narinder Singh, Di­rec­tor, Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions, Govt. of Delhi

Speak­ing to WSN, Narinder Singh, Di­rec­tor, Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions con­firmed that “As of now, no DS­GMC elec­tions are hap­pen­ing. The sug­ges­tion that elec­tions be held on 18 July has been turned down by Delhi Chief Min­is­ter on grounds of the Covid19 pan­demic.”

As can­di­dates of all par­ties have spent a lot of money, time and en­ergy on elec­tion­eer­ing, they are wor­ried as to how long this un­cer­tainty will con­tinue.  The in­cum­bent pres­i­dent of the DS­GMC, with­out both­er­ing about the model code of con­duct, is on a spend­ing spree in an un­con­trol­lable man­ner. Buried un­der their own weight and past deeds, the op­po­si­tion par­ties have also not ques­tioned Sir­sa’s pop­ulist mea­sures.

DS­GMC elec­tions have to be held prior to 29 Au­gust 2021, un­less ex­tended again. 

The term of the cur­rent DS­GMC had ex­pired in Feb­ru­ary 2021. How­ever, the Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions had ex­er­cis­ing its spe­cial pow­ers un­der Rule 7A(1) of Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee (Elec­tion of Pro-tem­pore Chair­man, Pres­i­dent, other of­fice-bear­ers and Mem­bers of the Ex­ec­u­tive Board) Rules, 1974 had first ex­tended the term to 30 May and now fur­ther ex­tended till 29 Au­gust 2021. 

Ac­cord­ing to this or­der, a copy of which has been ac­cessed by WSN, elec­tions have to be held prior to 28 Au­gust 2021, un­less ex­tended again. 

The in­sta­bil­ity in Sikh af­fairs in Delhi, es­pe­cially re­lated to Gur­d­wara man­age­ment and schools run by the DS­GMC con­tin­ues.