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PATIALA: The Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal Thursday welcomed the supreme court's decision regarding granting stay on Punjab High Court order that declared Sikhs are not a minority in Punjab.
In an informal chat with media person soon after the funeral of Mata Jaswant Kaur mother of Surjit Singh Rakhra, SAD's general secretary at village rakhra near here. He said that Supreme Court decision for granting stay has vindicated our stand that Sikhs are minority in country as well as in the state. Badal said that it was a sensitive issue, which has attached with our emotions. He said that Punajb Governmnet and SGPC will fight thi scase until its logical conclusion. SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar also welcomed the decision and said that they have faith in judiciary and it has vindicated our stand. The Supreme Court has stayed a Punjab High Court order that declared Sikhs are not a minority in Punjab. The Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee had challenged the High Court order. The High Court had last year dismissed a state government notification declaring Sikhs a minority in Punjab. The notification had sought 50 per cent reservation for Sikh students in Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee-run educational institutions. A bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan today stayed the operation of impugned judgement on the petition filed by the state of Punjab and Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), challenging High Court ruling that declared the Sikhs as a majority community in Punjab. According to the High Court, the Sikhs constituted 52 per cent of the total population of the state and therefore the Sikh community cannot be given the minority status in Punjab. The petitioners however assailed the High Court judgment on the grounds that there are large numbers of sects and all of them are not Sikhs and everyone wearing turban cannot be called a Sikh. The High Court has failed to appreciate this fact and therefore the judgment of the High Court is liable to be set aside.
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