India
Badal, Makkar welcome SC stay on Sikh status decision
Patiala | Thursday, May 15 2008 IST
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today welcomed the Supreme Court's decision to grant stay on Punjab High Court order that declared Sikhs were not a minority in Punjab. In an informal chat with mediapersons, Mr Badal, on a private visit here, said the Supreme Court decision for granting stay has ''vindicated our stand that Sikhs are minority in country as well as in the state''. Describing the issue as ''sensitive and attached with our emotions'', he asserted that the Punjab Governmnet and SGPC would fight the case until its logical conclusion. SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar also welcomed the decision and said ''we have faith in judiciary and it has vindicated our stand''. The Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee had challenged the High Court order which had last year dismissed a state government notification which declared 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 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 could not be given the minority status in Punjab. The petitioners, however, contended that the High Court had failed to appreciate the fact that everyone wearing turban could not be called a Sikh as there were large number of sects all of which were not Sikhs and thus the judgement of the High Court was liable to be set aside. -- (UNI) -- 15DR63.xml
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