Chandigarh, July 4- Haryana cabinet which met under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal here today accorded approval to a proposal regarding the formulation of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (Delimitation of wards and elections), Rules, 2023.

The tenure of said Adhoc Committee constituted to manage and supervise the affairs of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee is going to expire after 18 months; accordingly, it is necessary to hold elections of Gurdwara in Haryana to elect members of Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee and for that purpose, ibid Rules are required to be enacted.

In order to provide better autonomous management and effective supervision of Sikh Gurdwaras and Gurdwara properties in the State of Haryana, the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara (Management) Act, 2014 (for brevity the Act) was enacted by the State of Haryana vide notification dated July 14, 2014.

The Haryana Sikh Gurdwara (Management) Act, 2014 was challenged by way of filing of Writ Petition (Civil) No. 735 of 2014 before the Supreme Court of India. In the said petition, the Supreme Court vide order dated August 7, 2014 directed that the status quo with regard to subject Gurdwaras must be maintained by all concerned. In the light of said directions, the Adhoc Committee continued beyond the period of its limitation of 18 months as provided under sub-section (8) of Section 16 of the said Act. Later, on September 20, 2022 the said Writ Petition was finally dismissed by the Supreme Court.

As the requisite rules, stipulated under Section 52 of the Act for conducting the Gurdwara Elections in Haryana were not formulated so as to elect the members from various wards. Hence, after carrying out amendment in clause (8) of Section 16 of the Act an Adhoc Committee was constituted to manage and supervise the affairs of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee till a new Committee as stipulated under Sections 3 and 4 of the Act is not constituted by holding elections.