Congress Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha Amarinder Singh today said the Union Home Ministry asking Haryana Governor to reconsider his assent to a Bill for creating a separate SGPC in the state amounts to constitutional impropriety.
"This act of the Home Ministry is not only unprecedented but amounted to constitutional impropriety," Amarinder Singh said in a statement issued here.
It is an exclusive matter of the Haryana state, he said.
The former Punjab Chief Minister said Section 72 of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966 gives a clear mandate to Haryana to set up its own SGPC.
"You don't order a Governor, who is the Constitutional head of the state, to withdraw his assent to a law passed by the state legislature", he said.
Amarinder said an overwhelming majority of Sikhs, not only in Haryana but also in Punjab and other parts of the country, were supportive of a separate body for Haryana Sikhs to manage their gurdwaras and other institutions.
"So what is wrong in that?" he asked.
Singh asked why Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and the SGPC controlled by him not seeking judicial intervention over the matter.
"If they think the Haryana Act is illegal and unconstitutional what stops them from going to the court?" he asked.
"Or is it because they know that they do not stand any chance in a court of law as the Haryana Act is absolutely legitimate and legal and hence are trying to use extra judicial pressure and emotional blackmail with the Centre to force Haryana to withdraw the law even though it goes against the federal character of our democracy, which Badal has been advocating for last 50 years and is now trying to weaken it," he added.
Asserting that the Haryana Act was "constitutional, valid and legal", Singh referred to Entry 28 of the Concurrent List which mentions "charities and charitable institutions, charitable and religious endowments and religious institutions."
He pointed out that Sikh gurdwaras in Haryana are clearly religious institutions and hence would fall within the ambit of Entry 28 of the Concurrent List in the Seventh Schedule.
Consequently, Haryana is competent to legislate a separate and special state law dealing with gurdwaras within the state, he said.
