SC reserves order on Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, others plea in forgery case

New Delhi [India], April 11 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved the order judgment on pleas filed by Sukhbir Singh Badal, Parkash Singh Badal and Daljit Singh Cheema, challenging the proceedings pending before Punjab's Hoshiarpur Court in the alleged case of forgery and cheating filed against them, in the controversy over the dual constitution of Shiromani Akali Dal.
A Bench comprising of Justice MR Shah and Justice CT Ravikumar reserved the order after hearing the submission of all the parties connected to the matter.
Prakash Singh Badal, Sukhbir Singh Badal and Daljeet Singh Cheema have filed a plea in the apex court in a matter relating to the complaint filed by Hoshiarpur resident Balwant Singh Khera. Balwant Singh Khera had filed a criminal complaint before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate back in 2009 against the three.
According to the said Complaint, SAD was accused of submitting two different constitutions, i.e., one with the Gurdwara Election Commission (GEC) and the second with the Election Commission of India (ECI) to seek recognition as a political party. The criminal complaint was premised on the allegation that the party has claimed to be a secular party and given a declaration to abide by the principles of secularism in its constitution filed before ECI while it contests elections for a religious body, Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, thereby being a religious party.
KV Vishwanathan, Senior Advocate appeared for Prakash Singh Badal. R.S. Cheema, Senior advocate appeared for Sukhbir Singh Badal. Sandeep Kapur, Advocate appeared for Daljit Singh Cheema. Advocates Prashant Bhushan and Indira Unninayar appeared for Mr Balwant Singh Khera.
It was argued before the court that being religious does not run contrary to the principles of secularism and merely because a political outfit is contesting elections to a Gurdwara committee does not mean that it is not secular. It was argued that the criminal case with allegations of forgery and cheating over the constitution of the party filed before ECI and GEC therefore, had no basis.
The petitions were filed by Karanjawala and Co. Advocates and the brief was led by Nandini Gore and Sandeep Kapur, Senior Partners along with Virinder Pal Singh Sandhu, Aditi Bhatt, Tarannum Cheema, Tahira Karanjawala, Niharika Karanjawala, Arjun Sharma, Apoorva Pandey, Gudipati G. Kashyap, Principal Associates, Sanya Dua, Yash Dubey, Rose Verma, Associates.