Justice Ranjit Singh Commission

What it is: The Justice Ranjit Singh Commission was a one-member commission of inquiry into the 2015 beadbi of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji at Bargari and the police firing at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura that followed, in which two Sikhs were killed at Behbal Kalan on 14 October 2015. The Congress government of Captain Amarinder Singh, which took office in March 2017, appointed Justice Ranjit Singh, a retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, by a notification dated 14 April 2017. The Tribune says he replaced an earlier inquiry officer.

Its reports: The main report is dated 30 June 2018 and a supplementary report 16 August 2018. The government tabled the report in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha on Monday 27 August 2018, with Akali members walking out and a debate set for the next day.

What it found

• The firing in Faridkot district in October 2015 was unprovoked and uncalled-for, made without warning or the permission of civil authorities. It recommended criminal cases against the police officers who fired or ordered firing (The Tribune).
• Bullets used at Behbal Kalan were later tampered with, which it called destruction of evidence, and it asked the state police to look into it (The Tribune).
• The supplementary report said Parkash Singh Badal, then Chief Minister, was apparently involved in the police action at Kotkapura, and that the Chief Minister and his office were apparently kept informed of the action proposed and taken. The Tribune notes this went further than the main report, and WION says Badal did not cooperate when given a chance to explain.
• It recorded 162 separate instances of sacrilege, 12 of them after March 2017 (DailyO).

Reactions: The Akali Dal rejected the findings as politically motivated. Sukhbir Singh Badal said the report mentions his name only three times, never in connection with the firing; Congress leader Sunil Jakhar accused him of ordering it, and Sukhbir denied that (The Tribune). In September 2018 a former SSP and two other police officers asked the High Court to set the report aside. By January 2019 the court had stayed proceedings against five officers, and the police Special Investigation Team (SIT) held its own probe in abeyance.

What followed: In February 2023 an SIT chargesheet filed at Faridkot named Sukhbir Badal and former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini as masterminds of a conspiracy to use excessive force on protesters at Kotkapura, and Parkash Singh Badal among those who facilitated it. The Tribune's report does not mention the Commission. In April 2026, on the High Court's directions, sacrilege-related trials linked to the Kotkapura firing moved to the Sessions Court in Chandigarh. The Tribune reported on 10 August 2026 that police had filed sealed-cover status reports on 1 August and did not say whether charges have been framed.

Key moments

• 14 April 2017: Justice Ranjit Singh appointed.
• 30 June and 16 August 2018: the two reports; 27 August: tabled.
• 24 February 2023: SIT chargesheet at Faridkot.