The Punjab and Haryana high court has stayed the September 2024 decision of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC) notifying a board for the functioning of the Miri Piri Institute of Medical Sciences, Shahbad. The 500-bed medical college and hospital at Shahbad was established by the Miri Piri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Charitable Trust and has been operational since March 2006.
Event Context
In May, a single judge bench dismissed the institute’s petition challenging this notification. The high court division bench of justice Suvir Sehgal and justice Deepinder Singh Nalwa acted on the institute’s appeal against the single judge judgment.
Team Analysis
While dismissing the institute’s plea, the single judge bench opined that the trust was created by the SGPC to comply with statutory provisions and a Supreme Court judgment governing the establishment of a medical college and hospital. All trustees were appointed by the SGPC, the land was provided by it through lease or grant and the trust’s head office functioned from the SGPC office in Amritsar. The SGPC president served as the ex officio chairman of the trust, it had noted, adding that under the trust deed, all properties of the trust would revert to Sri Harmandir Sahib, Amritsar, if it ceased to function. “All these factors collectively establish that the property of the petitioner (trust) is actually property of the SGPC,” the court observed.
Match Outlook
“In the meanwhile, operation of the impugned letter dated 04.09.2024 (Annexure P-4) appended with this appeal, shall remain stayed till the next date of hearing,” the bench ordered while posting the matter for hearing on October 16.
The institute trust says it is an independent charitable trust constituted by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and its assets do not fall within the definition of “gurdwara property”; therefore, the HSGMC has no jurisdiction over its functioning.
On the other hand, the HSGMC maintains that the Haryana Sikh Gurdwaras (Management) Act, 2014, came into force on July 18, 2014. By virtue of the same, it became entitled to take over the assets and activities of institutions and trusts earlier managed by the SGPC in Haryana. The trust is effectively controlled by the SGPC and has no separate identity.
