Bogus votes: Court stays Chief Khalsa Diwan polls
AMRITSAR : On the eve of the polling, a local court on Saturday stayed the general elections of socio-religious organisation Chief Khalsa Diwan (CKD) till further orders amid the controversy over voter list. The 116-year-old organisation runs over 50 educational institutes, orphanages, old age homes and hospitals. Groups represented by Nirmal Singh and Sarabjit Singh are contesting the elections for six top posts.
AMRITSAR : On the eve of the polling, a local court on Saturday stayed the general elections of socio-religious organisation Chief Khalsa Diwan (CKD) till further orders amid the controversy over voter list. The 116year-old organisation runs over 50 educational institutes, orphanages, old age homes and hospitals.
Groups represented by Nirmal Singh and Sarabjit Singh are contesting the elections for six top posts. Nirmal and Sarabjit will face each other for the post of president.
The polling was scheduled for Sunday and all the arrangements had been made. However, civil judge (junior division) Rajbir Kaur stayed the election while taking up a complaint of Harjit Singh Sachdeva, a member of the organisation.
Sachdeva is from the Sarabjit group that sought scrutiny of the entire voter list of 433 members after four “fake” voters were found. The executive committee of the CKD had removed the names of the bogus voters when pointed out, but declined the request for scrutiny.
The group is also backed by former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) member Jaswinder Singh Advocate and controversial former president Charanjit Singh Chadha. The group had held Amarjit Singh Vikrant, the Nirmal group candidate for the post of vice-president, responsible for the bogus votes. The complainant had also sought that Vikrant should not be allowed to contest the elections.
NIRMAL SINGH GROUP TO CHALLENGE STAY
Terming the court order as biased, Nirmal Singh said they will challenge the order in the upper court as their view was not taken into account.
“Staying the elections a day before the polling is illegitimate. If somebody had issues with the voter list, it same should have been highlighted before the start of the election process. Secondly, the bogus votes have been removed. Actually, the rival group got frustrated seeing imminent defeat and moved court,” said Nirmal Singh.
He said, “Earlier, members of the rival group spoke against the interference of Akal Takht in the matters of the CKD, including polls. This time, they moved Akal Takht for its intervention in the polls. A returning officer (RO) is clandestinely backing the group.”