DSGMC HAILS HC ORDER TO NOT RELOCATE SIKHS IN SHILLONG

The Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) welcomed the Meghalaya high court’s Saturday order putting a stay on the relocation of Sikhs in the state capital Shillong without following due process.

A tiff between some Sikh women and a local Khasi driver on May 31 last year at Punjabi Lane, inhabited by nearly 350 families of Dalit Sikhs settled 150 years ago by the British, had snowballed into a crisis. A curfew was imposed in parts of the city.

“The decision will go a long way in securing justice for the community,” DSGMC working president Harmeet Singh Kalka and general secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa said in a statement.

“Members of the community were unduly being targeted by the government and the local administration. Today’s order of the High Court is a big victory to the Sikh community facing the danger of dislocation in Shillong,” the duo said.

Justice S.R. Sen, the HC judge, made it clear that the government cannot disturb the Sikhs of Punjabi Lane till the time civil courts are approached and the title is decided and both the parties will be given an opportunity of hearing. He also gave liberty to approach the courts in case the petitioners are aggrieved again.

“The Sikhs are residing in Shillong for a long time and if at local level any issue had arisen out, it was the duty of the local administration and the government to sort it out and protect the right of minorities,” they said.