The public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Mr Balwant Singh Khera and Mr Om Singh Satiana before the Delhi high Court

Chandigarh, 19 Feb, (Niel Bhalinder Singh): The public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Mr Balwant Singh Khera and Mr Om Singh Satiana before the Delhi high Court, seeks directions to Election Commission of India (ECI) to set aside the registration of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) as a Political Party and to quash the notification of ‘merger’ of the two parties Shiromani Akali Dal and Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal).

The Petitioners’ case is that the SAD’s registration was obtained based on a fraudulent undertaking of secularism given to ECI by SAD. The SAD doctored a document that it labelled its “Rules and Regulations” in order to project that it was complying with S29A of the RP Act which mandates undertaking of secularism to be registered as a political party. At the same time, the SAD uses its old constitution of 1974 which is a non-secular document in order to qualify as a religious party and contest elections to SGPC (Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee) and DSGMC (Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee) – the most powerful Sikh religious bodies in the country.

Election Commission of India

Without that constitution, it stands disqualified to contest Sikh Gurdwara elections. The SAD had withheld its true constitution from the Election Commission of India (ECI) at the time of seeking registration in 1989, despite the fact that it continues to use it even today to contest Sikh Gurdwara elections and keep alive its alignment with the Sikh religion. Thus, the SAD has been and continues to freely mix religion with politics, even though it is expressly prohibited by our Constitution and Supreme Court of India rulings.  

The Petitioners’ challenge to the ‘merger’ of SAD and SAD(Badal) in 1996 is because of yet another fraud committed by the two parties and violation of due procedure required for a ‘merger’ in utter violation of Supreme Court rulings.  This fraud is also revealed in public documents in the custody of the ECI. Petitioners have struggled with the matter for nearly 15 years. They were required to amend their petition and then file a fresh petition. The respondent parties have been refusing to file their response, with the exception of the SAD.

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee

Petitioners therefore moved an application seeking expeditious disposal of the case, given that the 2019 general elections are imminent and also their advancing age - Mr Balwant Singh Khera is well into his ‘80s now and Mr Om Singh Satiana is in his mid 70s.  The Delhi High Court  duly considered their application today and fixed a date for hearing the matter on the 3rd of April 2019.

It has given a maximum of 2 weeks to the respondents to file their responses after which their rights to reply will be closed.The matter is being heard by the Bench of the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court J Rajendra Menon with J V Kameswar Rao. The petitioners are being represented by Advocates Prashant Bhushan and Indira Unninayar.