Akal Takht pardons Gurmeet Ram Rahim

Who: The five Singh Sahiban who headed the Takhts, under Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh; Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, head of Dera Sacha Sauda; and the Akali government of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

What: In May 2007 the dera chief was accused of imitating Guru Gobind Singh and serving amrit, and Sikh organisations condemned it. The Akal Takht issued an edict forbidding Sikhs from any relationship with him. On 24 September 2015 Giani Gurbachan Singh and the other Takht heads issued a gurmata pardoning him for the act, on the strength of a written apology, according to PTI. The SGPC spent Rs 90 lakh on newspaper advertisements justifying the pardon, money taken from the Guru's golak.

The pardon lasted 22 days. A saroop of Guru Granth Sahib had been stolen from a Faridkot village gurdwara on 1 June. Torn angs were found at Bargari on 12 October, and on 14 October police fired on protesters at Behbal Kalan and killed two Sikhs. Under pressure from the Sikh community and hardliners, the Akal Takht withdrew the pardon on 16 October.

The pardon then became the grievance of the Sarbat Khalsa. On 10 November 2015 the gathering at Chabba, called by the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) and the United Akali Dal, drew more than a lakh people, according to The Tribune. It passed judgment on the Takht heads for allegedly acting under the influence of the SAD (Badal) government. It replaced them and named Jagtar Singh Hawara officiating Jathedar of the Akal Takht. SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar called its resolutions null and void.

Where: Sri Akal Takht Sahib, Amritsar.

Why it mattered: The pardon set off the charge, made at the Sarbat Khalsa in 2015, that the Panth's highest seat was being run by the ruling party. The Akal Takht itself later revisited it. On 2 December 2024 the Singh Sahiban pronounced religious punishment on Sukhbir Singh Badal for the mistakes of the Akali government. PTI reported that he admitted the charges, among them getting the pardon granted and calling the Jathedars of the time to his residence in the presence of Parkash Singh Badal. In December 2025 the Singh Sahiban declared Gurbachan Singh, by then a former Jathedar, tankhaiya, a decision The Tribune ties to the 2015 exoneration.