PUNJAB GOVT MUST ENSURE LEGISLATIVE CHANGES TO SAFEGUARD SIKH SENTIMENTS: DR KANWALJIT KAUR
Face2News/Chandigarh
The Global Sikh Council (GSC), an international representative body of overseas Sikh institutions, has written a formal letter to Singh Sahib Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj, acting Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht Sahib, urging sovereign Panthic intervention to ensure urgent amendments in the Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar (Amendment) Act, 2026. The GSC has also simultaneously forwarded copies of the letter to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Punjab Chief Secretary K.A.P. Sinha, seeking immediate legislative action in keeping with the sentiments of Sikhs worldwide.
While reaffirming the Panth’s unwavering demand for strict punishment for deliberate sacrilege, the Council president Dr Kanwaljit Kaur, OBE, in the letter has flagged critical flaws in the amended legislation which, she said, may cause as much distress to the Sikh community as the evil it seeks to remedy.
The Council’s most significant concern is that the Act implicitly empowers the police to determine violations of Sikh Rehat Maryada while registering cases against Sikh custodians during sacrilege incidents, amounting to direct and unconstitutional interference in Sikh religious affairs. The interpretation of Sikh Rehat Maryada, the Council maintained, is the exclusive sovereign domain of Sri Akal Takht Sahib alone.
She further highlighted that the Act makes custodians such as granthis, sewadars, gurdwara committees and Sikh families maintaining Parkash or Sri Akhand Path of Sri Guru Granth Sahib at gurdwaras or in their homes, respectively, criminally vulnerable alongside the actual desecrator, thereby forcing them to prove their innocence before courts while languishing in jails. This, she cautioned, may create perpetual fear among Sikhs and discourage them from maintaining Parkash or organising Akhand Paths of Sri Guru Granth Sahib in their homes.
The GSC president also raised several additional concerns, including the absence of maryada-compliant protocols while handling desecrated ‘Saroops’ in police custody and forensic examination, keeping the Saroop as case property during trial in police malkhana, lack of legal protection for those defending the Guru during incidents of sacrilege, possibility of false FIRs without adequate safeguards against misuse of the Act and absence of setting up fast-track courts despite severe punishments prescribed under the legislation.
The Council has urged Sri Akal Takht Sahib to issue an unequivocal directive to the Punjab Government for framing comprehensive amendments through a consultative process involving Sikh scholars, constitutional experts and Panthic institutions, including the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and Akal Takht Sahib, so as to address and pacify the concerns of Sikhs across the world.
