SGPC poll on schedule on Sept 18 without Sehajdharis voting

NEW DELHI: There was disappointment but not despair for Sehajdhari Sikhs in the Supreme Court, which on Friday allowed the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committee elections to be held as scheduled on September 18 without the faction voting in it.

However, a bench of Justices J M Panchal and H L Gokhale said the outcome of the SGPC elections would be subject to the Punjab and Haryana High Court's decision on the voting rights of Sehajdhari Sikhs.
The Sehajdhari Sikh Federation had challenged a September 9 order of the full bench of HC refusing permission to them to vote in the polls to the Sikh religious body, which controls most of the gurudwaras in the country. 
The controversy started with the October 8, 2003, notification by the NDA government excluding Sehajdharis from voting in SGPC polls. The controversy gained political overtones when the Centre's counsel Harbhagwan Singh made a statement recently before the HC, where the issue was pending since 2002, that the Centre was contemplating withdrawing the notification.

The HC disposed of the petition on the basis of the statement. But the Centre's purported statement led to a huge uproar in Punjab and led to BJP and Akali Dal MPs seeking a clarification from the Centre in Parliament. 


with thanks : Times of India : link above for detailed news.