Justice Gurnam Singh

Justice Gurnam Singh was a High Court judge who became leader of the Akali Dal in the Punjab Assembly and headed the first non-Congress government in Punjab. He was born on 25 February 1899 at Narangwal in Ludhiana district. He was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in London and practised at Lyallpur, where he became president of the Bar Association. After Partition he sat as a judge of the PEPSU High Court and then the Punjab High Court, from 1950 to 1959 (The Tribune).

After retiring from the bench he entered politics, at the invitation of C. Rajagopalachari and Master Tara Singh according to The Tribune, and joined Master Tara Singh and Sant Fateh Singh in reviving the Akali Party after it had been wound up following the 1955 Nehru-Tara Singh pact. Sant Fateh Singh made him head of the party's legislative wing. Elected from Raikot in 1962, he was Leader of the Opposition from 1962 to 1967, the years in which the demand for a Punjabi-speaking state was conceded. The Tribune credits him with winning acceptance for that demand among national leaders.

Key moments

• 4 March 1967: after the February election left Congress with 48 of 104 seats, a People's United Front of the Akali Dal (Sant Fateh Singh group, 24 seats), the Jana Sangh, both Communist parties, Republicans, Socialists and independents chose him as its leader. His government took office on 8 March. The Tribune called it the first non-Congress government in the state, and unusual because both the Left and the Right backed it.
• 22 November 1967: Lachhman Singh Gill and 16 other legislators broke away and Gurnam Singh resigned the same day. Gill formed a government three days later.
• 17 February 1969 to 27 March 1970: he returned as Chief Minister after the mid-term election. ThePrint reports that differences with Sant Fateh Singh over a Rajya Sabha nomination led the Jana Sangh, his main partner, to leave his side, and Parkash Singh Badal became Chief Minister in March 1970.
• After office he served as India's High Commissioner to Australia. ThePrint says he later formed a separate Akali faction that fought the 1972 elections. He died in an air crash on 31 May 1973.

In office. The Tribune says that despite the instability he founded Guru Nanak Dev University at Amritsar, built the G.N. thermal plant at Bathinda, extended rural electrification and secured a minimum procurement price for foodgrains from the Centre. It ties the first fall to dissension inside Akali ranks, including his estrangement from Sant Fateh Singh, and says Indira Gandhi's Congress helped to topple the government.

What he is remembered for. As the judge who took the Akali Dal from opposition into the Chief Minister's office, and as a leader of secular, progressive outlook whom The Tribune calls “an enlightened leader of the Akali Dal”. His two ministries lasted about eight months and thirteen months.