Akal Takht seals records of SGPC’s publication wing

In the wake of 267 missing ‘saroops’ of Guru Granth Sahib, an Akal Takht Secretariat team today sealed the records of the publication wing of the SGPC at Gurdwara Ramsar Sahib, the designated place for the publication of holy books and maintaining records.

The SGPC executive had urged Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh to get an independent investigation conducted by a retired Sikh judge or a Sikh intellectual into the case.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (or SGPC) is an organization in India responsible for the management of gurdwaras, Sikh places of worship in three states of Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh and union territory of Chandigarh.SGPC also administers Darbar Sahib in Amritsar.

The SGPC is governed by the chief minister of Punjab. The SGPC manages the security, financial, facility maintenance and religious aspects of Gurdwaras as well as keeping archaeologically rare and sacred artifacts, including weapons, clothes, books and writings of the Sikh Gurus.

Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925 was a piece of legislation passed by the Punjab Legislative Council on 9 July 1925 which marked the culmination of the struggle of the Sikh people from 1920-1925 to wrest control of their places of worship from the mahants or priests into whose hands the Gurdwaras had passed during the eighteenth-century when the Khalsa were driven from their homes to seek safety in remote hills and deserts.