The Punjab and Haryana high court has said that legally there is no impediment in resolving a dispute by gurdwara oath if parties opt for it.
The high court bench of justice Ajay Tewari was responding to concerns shown by Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in a case where two parties went for oath at Nada Sahib Gurdwara in the presence of a court commissioner last week for resolution of a property dispute.
Upon hearing about the case, SGPC counsel Kanwaljit Singh had told the court that as per the tenets of Sikhism taking of oaths was frowned upon by the Tenth Guru and the order of this court would foster such actions. The matter has been resolved in the present case yet the court should be more circumspect in making such orders and it should not become a precedent.
However, the court clarified that in the given case, request was made by the two parties and there was no direction from the court.
The court said that it was not a case where one party had asserted that he would take oath and the other party should accept it, but it was a case where the both parties had agreed on the proposal from the appellant.
“The appellant may or may not have had any faith in the respondents but he had such implicit faith in the Almighty that he was willing to accept an oath of the respondents provided they took it in the Gurudwara Sahib. There are many cases where such arrangements are resorted to outside the court and disputes decided. Even otherwise, statements on oath are an integral part of taking evidence. Further, oath is prescribed for various public offices,” the court observed.
{{/usCountry}}“The appellant may or may not have had any faith in the respondents but he had such implicit faith in the Almighty that he was willing to accept an oath of the respondents provided they took it in the Gurudwara Sahib. There are many cases where such arrangements are resorted to outside the court and disputes decided. Even otherwise, statements on oath are an integral part of taking evidence. Further, oath is prescribed for various public offices,” the court observed.
{{/usCountry}}The court took note of an earlier judgment wherein such an oath was accepted by the court under the Indian Evidence Act.
It was on May 3 that the court had appointed a court commissioner and sent both the parties to Gurdwara Nada Sahib on May 7 for the oath. The court had also ordered a local commissioner to videograph the event. The parties settled the issue with the oath and after a report from the court commissioner, the matter was disposed of by the high court on Wednesday.