COURTESY HT NOV 28

SGPC passes resolution against move backing pardon to dera chief
HT Correspondent

letterschd@hindustantimes.com

AMRITSAR : The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) passed a resolution in its election session on Friday against its five-year old move backing the pardon by the Akal Takht to Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a blasphemy case.

After newly elected SGPC president Jagir Kaur read out the resolutions for approval of the general house, committee member Gurpreet Singh Randhawe Wale, who led the opposition members, demanded a resolution to withdraw the resolution passed by the SGPC members during the meeting called unofficially on September 29, 2015, during tenure of late president Avtar Singh Makkar.

Claiming that the general house did not exist legally at that time due to the Supreme Court ruling, Jagir Kaur said there was no need for such a resolution. “Because the general house did not exist, its meeting and resolution held no validity. Secondly, the Akal Takht had revoked the pardon move a few days later. The revocation itself rejected this resolution,” she maintained. On this, another member from the opposition, Amrik Singh Shahpur, said, “If that was not a meeting of the general house meeting was it called for misleading the community?” The Akali Dal stalwart and SGPC member Tota Singh came on the dais and supported the demand for passing a resolution against the 2015 move in light of the Akal Takht’s move to revoke the pardon. Jagir Kaur agreed to this and raised slogans to pass the resolution, even as its contents were not clear. HTC