Chandigarh: Punjab’s Bhagwant Mann authorities is all set to amend the Sikh Gurdwaras Act of 1925 to permit a number of channels to air gurbani from Amritsar’s Golden Temple, versus the present apply of only one channel having broadcast rights.
Gurbani is the studying of the Guru Granth Sahib, thought-about a dwelling Guru, and the singing of hymns in gurdwaras. The Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, is a British-era laws handed by the Punjab legislative council.
Addressing a press convention following a cupboard assembly right here Monday afternoon, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann stated that the modification — referred to as the Sikh Gurdwaras (Modification) Act, 2023 — will probably be made so all of “humankind” is ready to hearken to and watch the stay telecast of gurbani via numerous channels.
Mann’s announcement got here a day after he tweeted that the modification was being made to free the telecast of gurbani from the tendering course of.
Broadcast rights for gurbani on the Golden Temple, the best Sikh shrine, are at present with the PTC — a Punjabi tv community owned by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal. It was granted the rights in 2012 by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the physique created for managing gurdwaras in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Chandigarh below the 1925 Act.
PTC’s contract involves an finish in July.
The Punjab authorities’s announcement comes proper in the midst of a raging controversy over the telecast rights for gurbani. The SGPC has objected to the federal government’s announcement, accusing Mann and his Aam Aadmi Get together authorities of interfering with Sikh non secular affairs to fulfill their very own political ends.
In a tweet Sunday night, SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami claimed that any change within the 1925 Act can solely be led to by Parliament on the suggestions of SGPC’s basic home.
Punjab Chief Minister is interfering in Sikh affairs to satisfy his political pursuits: Harjinder Singh Dhami
Amritsar:
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), Sri Amritsar, President Harjinder Singh Dhami has strongly condemned the announcement made by Punjab Chief… pic.twitter.com/6W4Nl0a4av— Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (@SGPCAmritsar) June 19, 2023
ਮੁੱਖ ਮੰਤਰੀ @BhagwantMann ਜੀ, ਸਿੱਖਾਂ ਦੇ ਧਾਰਮਿਕ ਮਾਮਲਿਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਉਲਝਾਉਣ ਦੀ ਕੋਸ਼ਿਸ਼ ਨਾ ਕਰੋ। ਸਿੱਖੀ ਦੇ ਮਾਮਲੇ ਸੰਗਤ ਦੀ ਭਾਵਨਾਵਾਂ ਤੇ ਸਰੋਕਾਰਾਂ ਨਾਲ ਸਬੰਧਤ ਹਨ, ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ‘ਚ ਸਰਕਾਰਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਸਿੱਧੇ ਤੌਰ ‘ਤੇ ਦਖ਼ਲ ਕਰਨ ਦਾ ਕੋਈ ਹੱਕ ਨਹੀਂ। ਤੁਸੀਂ ਸਿੱਖ ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਐਕਟ 1925 ‘ਚ ਸੋਧ ਕਰਕੇ ਨਵੀਂ ਧਾਰਾ ਜੋੜਨ ਦੀ ਗੱਲ ਕਰ ਰਹੇ ਹੋ, + pic.twitter.com/pAMLpuHTXW
— Harjinder Singh Dhami (@SGPCPresident) June 18, 2023
Political rivals additionally requested if Mann’s authorities had the facility to make such an modification. The Congress’s Sukhpal Khaira claimed that the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, was a central legislation and was out of the state’s ambit.
So far as my information goes Punjab authorities can not tinker or amend or add to the present Sikh Gurudwara Act 1925 as its a central act! I ponder how @BhagwantMann is talking so as to add a clause within the stated Act! Sure the Vidhan Sabha can go a decision and ship it to Middle for… pic.twitter.com/RzcJEQUThe
— Sukhpal Singh Khaira (@SukhpalKhaira) June 18, 2023
SAD chief Sukhbir Badal, in the meantime, referred to as it an assault on SGPC’s sovereignty and a problem to the authority of the “Guru ghar” (home of the Guru).
ਕੇਜਰੀਵਾਲ ਦੀ “ਆਪ” ਸਰਕਾਰ ਦੇ ਮੁੱਖ ਮੰਤਰੀ ਦਾ ਪਾਵਨ ਸਿੱਖ ਗੁਰਬਾਣੀ ਸੰਬੰਧੀ ਐਲਾਨ ਸਿੱਧਾ ਸਿੱਧਾ ਖਾਲਸਾ ਪੰਥ ਅਤੇ ਸਿੱਖ ਗੁਰਧਾਮਾਂ ਉੱਤੇ ਸਰਕਾਰੀ ਹੱਲਾ ਹੈ। ਇਹ ਘਿਨਾਉਣਾ ਫ਼ੈਸਲਾ ਸਿੱਖ ਸੰਗਤ ਕੋਲੋਂ ਗੁਰਬਾਣੀ ਪ੍ਰਚਾਰ ਦਾ ਹੱਕ ਖੋਹ ਕੇ ਗੁਰਧਾਮਾਂ ਦੇ ਸੰਭਾਲ ਸਰਕਾਰੀ ਕਬਜ਼ੇ ਵਿਚ ਲੈਣ ਵੱਲ ਪਹਿਲਾ ਖ਼ਤਰਨਾਕ ਅਤੇ ਹਿਮਾਕਤ ਭਰਿਆ ਕਦਮ ਹੈ। ਇਸ… pic.twitter.com/653C2PFqQI
— Sukhbir Singh Badal (@officeofssbadal) June 18, 2023
Authorized consultants, nevertheless, declare that the modification was throughout the legislative competence of the Punjab legislature. According to senior advocate Anupam Gupta, Punjab’s transfer is constitutionally legitimate, particularly in gentle of the Supreme Court docket’s September verdict on Haryana gurdwaras.
On 20 September, 2022, the Supreme Court docket had rejected arguments that the Sikh Gurdwaras Act was a central laws and that the Haryana Sikh Gurdwaras Administration Act 2014 — the laws that was being challenged in courtroom — had violated the legislation, in line with Gupta. The Haryana legislation introduced into pressure a separate physique to handle gurdwaras in Haryana, which had been, till then, below the SGPC.
“Objections to legislative competence raised by the SGPC, the Akali Dal and the Congress to the newest proposal of the chief minister had been additionally raised earlier than the Supreme Court docket within the Haryana case,” Gupta advised ThePrint.
He added: “After an in-depth consideration, the Supreme Court docket rejected all such pleas and strongly affirmed the competence of the Haryana Meeting to enact the stated legislation. Since all state legislatures have the identical legislative competence below the Structure, what’s true of Haryana have to be accepted as true for Punjab as properly.”
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‘Political color’
In his press convention Monday, Mann stated that his cupboard had authorized inserting Part 125A within the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925, to make sure that gurbani is “free to air” from the Golden Temple. He additionally dismissed all objections from the Opposition, citing the 2022 Supreme Court docket ruling.
Based on Mann, the brand new modification will lay down because the responsibility of the SGPC to “propagate the teachings of the Gurus by making uninterrupted stay feed of Holy Gurbani from Sri Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) accessible freed from value to all media homes, shops, platforms, channels and so forth. whoever needs to broadcast it”.
He additionally accused the Badal household of attempting to reap the benefits of Sikh non secular sentiments by giving PTC unique rights.
The SGPC in the meantime claimed that Mann needed to please his masters in Delhi by giving a “political color” to Sikhs’ non secular affairs.
Addressing a press convention in Amritsar over Mann’s announcement Monday, SGPC chief Dhami claimed that gurbani was already being broadcast worldwide from the Golden Temple totally free and that the Sangat (the Sikh neighborhood) each in India and overseas of the nation had been happy with it.
He additionally stated that the Punjab and Haryana Excessive Court docket had already dismissed a petition over the published of gurbani in 2008 declaring the SGPC the competent organisation to determine on these issues.
Based on senior advocate Gupta, quoted earlier, there was little question over the Punjab meeting’s competence on this topic and that courts in India, whether or not it was the excessive courtroom or the Supreme Court docket, had repeatedly rejected the argument that solely Parliament can amend the 1925 Act.
“(Additionally), independently of the judgments of the Supreme Court docket and the Excessive Court docket, in my thought-about view, the proposed invoice falls inside Entry 28 of the Concurrent Listing within the seventh schedule of the Structure,” he advised ThePrint.
This entry offers with charities and charitable establishments, charitable and spiritual endowments and spiritual establishments.
“The Sikh Gurdwaras Act 1925 is clearly lined by the stated entry. Each Parliament and state legislatures are competent to go legal guidelines on any topic within the concurrent checklist,” he stated.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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