PIL on Miri Piri medical institute

CHANDIGARH: The high court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing to March 28 on a PIL raising the issue of alleged illegal transfer of assets of SGPC-run Miri Piri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research in Shahabad-Markanda town of Haryana. The division bench, headed by justice Vijender Jain, also directed the petitioner's counsel to submit a copy of the lease-deed and documents related to thecase. The PIL sought directions to restrain the SGPC from transferring the assets to a 12-member trust which has Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar, SGPC's former chief Bibi Jagir Kaur, Dr KS Chugh and Punjab advocate general Hardev Singh Mattewal as members. The counsel for petitioner Miri Piri College Bachao Sangharsh Samiti argued that the SGPC under the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925, had no power to sell or transfer its assets to any one. It was so because the SGPC itself was a trustee for managing the properties of the Sikh religious shrines held primarily in the name of Guru Granth Sahib and not an individual, the counsel submitted. Importantly, the institute is being built at a cost of over Rs 100 crore out of which Rs 77 crore are being raised as a loan from the Punjab and Sind Bank. THE TIMES OF INDIA; 27 Mar 2008, 0213 hrs IST , TNN