G.S. Singhvi, J. - (1.) This appeal is directed against judgment dated 13.9.1982 of the Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court whereby the appeal preferred by Mahant Jawala Singh (the Appellant herein), who died during the pendency of the appeal before the High Court and is now represented by his legal representative against the order passed by Sikh Gurdwara Tribunal, Chandigarh (for short, Rs. the Tribunal) declaring Gurdwara Sri Guru Granth Sahib situated within the revenue estate of village Jalal, Tehsil and District Bhatinda as a Sikh Gurdwara was dismissed.
(2.) Fifty-three persons claiming to be Sikh worshippers submitted a petition to the State Government under Section 7(1) of the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925 (for short, Rs. the Act) for declaring the institution in question as a Sikh Gurdwara was published in the Punjab Government Gazette vide notification No. 385-G.P. dated 25.1.1963 issued under Section 7(3) of the Act. In response to the aforesaid notification, four separate petitions were filed under Section 8 of the Act. One of the petitions was filed by the Appellant. In paragraphs 2, 3 and 5 of his petition, the Appellant averred as under: (2) That the Petitioner is a hereditary office-holder of the said Dera and is above 21 years of age and is thus entitled to forward this petition under Section 8 of the Act. (3) That the said Dera now described as Gurdwara Sri Guru Granth Sahib in the above-said Notification is not at all a Sikh Gurdwara. It was not established by or in memory of any of the ten Sikh Gurus or in commemoration of any incident in the life of any of the ten Sikh Gurus or in memory of any Sikh Martyr, Saint or Historical person and has never been used for public worship by Sikhs owing to any tradition connected with any of the ten Sikh Gurus or the Sikh religion nor was established for use by Sikhs for purposes of public worship at any time before or at the time of the presentation of the petition under Sub-section (1) of Section 7 of the Act. In short none of the ingredients mentioned in Section 16 of the Act applied to the said Dera. On the other hand, the institution in question is only a Dera known as Rs. Wada Dera Jalal. It was founded and established by Baba Kharak Singh, a Nirmala Sadhu long long ago. Baba Kharak Singh was a religious and pious person and was very much revered in the Ilaqa. He established the said Dera to serve as a resting place for Nirmala Sadhus and to impart religious teachings to the disciples. It was neither established for use by Sikhs for the purpose of public worship nor was it used for such worship by the Sikhs at any time. The said Dera is partly a religious and partly a charitable institution of a private nature. Guru Granth Sahib Ji is held in great reverence by the Nirmalas. Therefore, the same is opened in one room of the Dera for recitation to the Nirmala Sadhus - The Samadhies of the previous Mahants also exist which are also the objects of worship by the disciples of the previous Mahants. The said Dera is not a Sikh Gurdwara, but is only a Nirmala institution. Nirmalas are not Sikhs as defined in the said Act. (5) That the signatures of the persons on the petition under Section 7(1) of the Act were obtained by the employees of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Amritsar fraudulently representing that the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Amritsar was going to request the Punjab State Government to grant annual Jagirs to all the religious institutions situate in erstwhile Pepsu, hence they should subscribe their signatures on the paper. Most of the signatures are only bogus. As a matter of fact, the said persons, never applied for declaring the said Dera to be a Sikh Gurdwara.
(3.) Of the remaining three petitions, two were filed by different sets of the worshippers of the institution. The fourth petition was filed by some of the persons whose names appeared in notification dated 25.1.1963. They claimed that their signatures were obtained by fraud and prayed that the Dera in question may not be declared as Sikh Gurdwara.;