Haryana to bring Ordinance to amend Haryana Sikh Gurdwaras (Management) Act, 2014

Chandigarh (Haryana) [India], August 5 : The Haryana Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini in Chandigarh today approved the draft of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwaras (Management) Amendment Ordinance, 2024 to amend the Haryana Sikh Gurdwaras (Management) Act, 2014.
As per the proposed draft ordinance, now the Chairman of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Judicial Commission shall be Judge of High Court if so appointed, and if a judge of the High Court is not appointed, then the District Judge if so appointed and if the District Judge is also not appointed, the one of the three selected members of the Commission shall be the Chairman in the order of their seniority either in service or at Bar, as the case may be and the term of the Chairman or the Member shall be five years from the date he assumes charge.
Presently, the Chairman is appointed with the qualification that at the time of his retirement or resignation, he was a district judge not having less than 10 years standing as such on his superannuation.
The Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Judicial Commission is a quasi-judicial authority; whose decisions are final. The dispute relating to the Gurdwara property, its funds and any other disputes between the Gurdwara Committee, Executive Board or any other institution, are to be adjudicated upon by the Commission. Therefore, it has been deemed appropriate that a Judge of the High Court should also be considered for appointment as a member and chairman of the Commission.
Besides this, in the Ordinance, the upper cap of 65 years of age as provided in clause (iv) of sub-section (1) of Section 46 has also been removed. The said amendments have been done in Section 46 of the Haryana Act 22 of 2014.