SGPC describes Haryana Act as unconstitutional and blatant interference in Sikh affairs

Chandigarh, July 14, 2014: The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee today described the bill  passed by the Haryana Vidhan Vidhan Sabha for setting up a separate body to manage Sikh shrines in that state as “ a  blatant constitutional transgression” and "a brazen interference in Sikh religious affairs,   and asked the Haryana Governor to decline
assent to the said bill.
A deputation of the Committee headed by its president Jathedar Avtar Singh and comprising leaders from SAD including Education Minister and party secretary Dr Daljit Singh Cheema and SAD General Secretary Harcharan Singh Bains, called on the Governor mid-noon today and submitted that the said  bill “has been passed in unconstitutional manner. “ The delegation requested the Governor to “seek clarification regarding the reserving of the Bill for Presidential assent.”
In their memorandum, the SGPC delegation maintained that a state Vidhan Sabha had "no legislative competence " to pass a bill on a subject which is governed by an Act of the parliament. “Even after the partition of India, the Gurdwaras which fell in the undivided State of Punjab and PEPSU have continuously been under the jurisdiction of the
SGPC by virtue of the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925. This scope of jurisdiction has been preserved even after the territorial bifurcation of the State in November, 1966 by according SGPC the status of an Inter-State Body Corporate.” The memorandum said.
The bill which “seeks to frame a law in order to exclude notified Sikh Gurdwaras from the ambit and jurisdiction of the Inter-State body i.e. SGPC amounts to illegally usurping and transgressing upon the long honoured and lawful rights of the  SGPC to manage and administer the Sikh Gurdwaras located within the jurisdiction conferred upon it, including the State of Haryana. The Haryana Legislative Assembly does not have the legislative competence or jurisdiction to enact and pass the above-mentioned Bill”.
The action flies in the face of  “the Constitutional provisions as the field in which the Act is sought to be legislated is already occupied by a Central legislation. Secondly,   by excluding and transgressing upon the existing jurisdiction of an Inter-State Body Corporate, it is violating the Constitutional mandate. Thirdly, the provisions of the present Bill are directly in conflict and thus Repugnant to the existing law in force at the instance of the Parliament.
The memo quoted  Section 72 of the Punjab Re-organisation Act, 1966 which clearly states that  that “the power to make law in respect of the SGPC as an Inter-State Body Corporate has been reserved to the Central Government only and there is no provision in law for bifurcation of the said Body Corporate by enacting a State legislation.”