Tohra comes under cloud on Gurdwara appointments

AMRITSAR: The alleged outof-way appointment of 335 employees, including panj piyaras, jathedars, ragis, head granthis, katha vachaks etc in Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee by former SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra has been challenged by a social activist of Gurdaspur, Harvinder Pal Singh.
He has filed a writ petition before Sikh Gurdwara Judicial Commission (SGJC) against Tohra, former secretary of SGPC Surjit Singh, in-charge of establishment Satbir Singh and Kirpal Singh Badungar (persona defendant), present president of the committee, urging SGJC to quash the appointments made by Tohra and remove him from the membership of SGPC while declaring him disqualified for five years.
This is reportedly the first major political case filed before SGJC after the present commission took over early this month. The commission has fixed September 3 for the appearance of defendants in the court.
Manmohan Singh Bhullar, counsel for Harvinder Pal Singh, told TNN that the petitioner in his petition has claimed that the appointments to SGPC were made by flouting service rules and were in violation of the provisions of Gurdwara Act.