Af­ter the re­sults of the elec­tion of 46 mem­bers, now it is time for co-op­tion of 9 mem­bers to the eighth Gen­eral House of the DS­GMC which is to be com­pleted within 15 days of the elec­tion re­sults. This process, which should be de­mo­c­ra­tic and smooth is against due process and elec­toral norms and pro­vi­sions of the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­waras Act, 1971.  WSN Delhi Desk’s Gurmeet Singh ex­am­ines the pro­vi­sions of the Act and how Badal Dal up­staged the process in nom­i­nat­ing de­feated DS­GMC Pres­i­dent Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa.

The an­nounce­ment of Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa as the SGPC nom­i­nee as one of the co-opted mem­bers for the new com­mit­tee was done by Badal Dal Pres­i­dent Sukhbir Singh Badal at a press con­fer­ence in Delhi on 25 Au­gust, once it was clear that he had lost elec­tions from the pres­ti­gious Pun­jabi Bagh con­stituency to Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal Delhi leader Harvin­der Singh Sarna.

Soon af­ter the re­sults on 25 Au­gust, the SGPC and Badal Dal lead­er­ship acted with alacrity in de­clar­ing Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa their co-opted rep­re­sen­ta­tive.

The Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee (Co-op­tion of Mem­bers) Rules, 1974, state that the Ad­min­is­tra­tive Of­fi­cer of the Gur­d­wara Com­mit­tee shall com­mu­ni­cate in writ­ing the name and ad­dress of the nom­i­nee of SGPC to the Di­rec­tor, on the day fixed for co-op­tion of the mem­bers but be­fore the hour fixed for the meet­ing. In sub­sec­tion 3 of clause 5 in part II, it clearly states that af­ter co-op­tion of the head priests of the Takhts, the Di­rec­tor shall read out the name of the nom­i­nee of SGPC, Am­rit­sar and call upon the mem­bers pre­sent in the meet­ing to pro­pose the name of the said nom­i­nee.

 Read also: In Delhi, Badal Dal’s 4 Mus­ke­teers face po­lice ac­tion for in­tim­i­da­tion

2 of the 9 co-op­tions, as per the Act and rules there­un­der are to be done by draw­ing lots out of the list of Pres­i­dents of Reg­is­tered Singh Sab­has. Sig­nif­i­cantly, who are the pres­i­dents of which Singh Sab­has is not known as the list has not been up­loaded onto the Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions web­site, clearly leav­ing room for ma­noeu­vre and ma­nip­u­la­tion.

2 of the 9 co-op­tions, as per the Act and rules there­un­der are to be done by draw­ing lots out of the list of Pres­i­dents of Reg­is­tered Singh Sab­has. Sig­nif­i­cantly, who are the pres­i­dents of which Singh Sab­has is not known as the list has not been up­loaded onto the Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions web­site, clearly leav­ing room for ma­noeu­vre and ma­nip­u­la­tion.

The Jathedars of Akal Takht Sahib, Kesgarh Sahib, Patna Sahib and Hazur Sahib are the other 4 nom­i­nees but with­out vot­ing rights. The Di­rec­torate has not clar­i­fied as to whether the Jathedar of the fifth Takht would be also made an ex of­fi­cio mem­ber, though the Delhi As­sem­bly did pass an amend­ment to this ef­fect.

2 more mem­bers are cho­sen from among the Sikh com­mu­nity lead­ers from Delhi, on the ba­sis of pro­por­tional rep­re­sen­ta­tion by means of a sin­gle trans­fer­able vote. Ef­fec­tively mean­ing that of the 46 mem­bers, with a tally of 27 for Badal Dal and a com­bined tally of 19 for the op­po­si­tion par­ties, 1 nom­i­nee each will be se­lected for the win­ning group and 1 for the losers.

 Read also: Delhi San­gat fu­ri­ous at Badal Dal at­tack on Di­rec­tor Gur­d­wara Elec­tions, po­lice files case

The en­tity of Shi­ro­mani Akal Dal Badal as a re­li­gious group or a po­lit­i­cal party is un­der con­sid­er­a­tion of the Pun­jab and Haryana High Court.

The let­ter of SGPC raises many ques­tions. There is a res­o­lu­tion dated  23 Au­gust of the ex­ec­u­tive of SGPC giv­ing all pow­ers to the Pres­i­dent of SGPC to nom­i­nate and send the name of the nom­i­nee.  Bibi Ja­gir Kaur and SGPC were proac­tive to send the names and Sukhbir Singh Badal an­nounced it even be­fore the of­fi­cial de­c­la­ra­tion of re­sults came from the Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions. The nom­i­na­tion an­nounce­ment was done even be­fore the Gen­eral House has for­mally met for the first time.

 Read also: DS­GMC mem­ber Kalra joins Badal Dal; turn­coats cheat Guru and San­gat

 Read also: Delhi High Court con­firms Sarna co-op­tion, Badal Dal choice pend­ing, Sirsa nom­i­na­tion in limbo

An­other as­pect that needs em­pha­sis is that the en­tity of Shi­ro­mani Akal Dal Badal as a re­li­gious group or a po­lit­i­cal party is un­der con­sid­er­a­tion of the Pun­jab and Haryana High Court.

The plot will un­fold in the next few days!!