SGPC set to initiate talks with Centre for out-of-court settlement
Apex Sikh body decides to write to PM after the 37th anniversary of military action at Golden Temple
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) is set to begin negotiations with the Union government for out-of-court settlement of ₹1,000-crore damages suit related to Operation Bluestar, immediately after the 37th anniversary of the military action at Golden Temple.
The suit was filed by the SGPC, under its then president Gurcharan Singh Tohra, in the Delhi high court in March 1985. Thirtysix years on, it is still pending. On the court’s order, both sides — Union government and SGPC — are ready to resolve the dispute out of court since 2019. However, no meeting has been held between the two sides so far.
“The matter, which came to a standstill due to the pandemic, was discussed in our last executive committee meeting held on June 2,” said Bhagwant Singh Sialka, an advocate and general secretary of the SGPC. “It was decided that a letter will be written on the issue to Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon after the anniversary of military action.”
The Prime Minister will be approached first because he is the competent authority being the executive head of the state, said Sialka. “Let’s see to whom he further assigns the task of negotiations,” he said.
SGPC honorary chief secretary Harjinder Singh Dhami said the apex Sikh body has already paid ₹10 crore as court fees in the case. “So, we want the case to be settled, and will start the proceedings in this regard after June 6. We are bound by the court’s order to sit together and settle the dispute. The SGPC executive committee will sit again to decide on what terms the talks are to be initiated,” he said.
The SGPC will also take help of experts and scholars in the process, said people privy to the development.
‘Compensation is symbolic’
“The loss borne by the Sikh community can never be compensated with money. The purpose of filing the suit was to make the government admit that it had been totally unfair with Sikhs. Compensation is a symbolic thing. If we get it, the operation will prove to be unjustified,” said Sialka, adding that the suit also helped bring on record the events that led to the military action and everything that occurred afterwards.
Meanwhile, a sub-committee constituted by the SGPC is working on a list of precious items that were taken away by the Indian Army from Sikh Reference Library and other places on the Golden Temple complex.
The military action that was carried out in the first week of June in 1984 to flush the Sikh militants out from the Golden Temple complex had damaged the buildings of the Akal Takht, Golden Temple and Teja Singh Samundri Hall, which is the SGPC headquarters. Except at Akal Takht, many bullet marks on other buildings are preserved as evidence in this case.