High Court reserves order on gurdwara elections

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday reserved its order on a plea filed by the state government against a single judge’s order restraining it from issuing a notification for next month’s Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) elections.

A division bench of acting chief justice A K Sikri and justice Rajiv Shah Endlaw reserved their order after both parties concluded their arguments. The February 7 order had directed city government to update, within a month, the electoral rolls with photographs of voters for the DSGMC elections. The directorate of gurdwara election  also challenged the order of justice Vipin Sanghi ordering it to complete the exercise of delimitation in 46 wards within a month.

Challenging the order, the government in its petition said, “The single judge had no rightto pass such an order once the directorate has declared the schedule for the polls”.

On the delimitation of 46 wards, the government said it would take a long time and could be done only after the elections. The single judge’s order came on a petition filed by Harmohan Singh, a poll aspirant, alleging that the directorate had virtually announced the schedule for the election but the notification was yet to be issued.

The election is scheduled for March 11 and the filing of nomination papers by candidates would have started on February 16, he said.

“The election of DSGMC on the basis of incomplete list of voters and without delimitation of wards will cause unfair representation of the members from each ward. A number of duplicate voters have been mentioned in the list and non-Sikhs also figure in the voters’ list,” the petition said.