High court adjourns Sehajdhari party’s plea

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday adjourned for four weeks the Sehajdhari Sikh Party’s petition seeking the appointment of an administrator to take care of the day-to-day work of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), with the directions that the HC be informed about the outcome of a related ongoing case in the Supreme Court.

The directions came from the division bench headed by chief justice Ranjan Gogoi when the court was informed that the SGPC had approached the apex court challenging the high court’s judgment dated December 20.

The high court, in its judgment, had restored the voting rights of Sehajdhari Sikhs by quashing the Centre’s notifica-

HC WAS INFORMED THAT SGPC HAD APPROACHED APEX COURT CHALLENGING HIGH COURT’S DEC 20 JUDGMENT

tion dated October 8, 2003. The Supreme Court had earlier made it clear that the SGPC elections - conducted in September last year - would be subject to the outcome of the ongoing case in the high court.

The petitioner, in the public interest litigation, had submitted that an administrator should be appointed to take care of SGPC’S work, claiming that the 2010 SGPC elections had become null and void after the HC’S December 20 judgment.

The case has been adjourned to March 7 for the next hearing.