Harjinder Singh Dhami

Advocate Harjinder Singh Dhami has been president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) since November 2021. He was born on 28 August 1956, is a law graduate, and has been an SGPC member from Hoshiarpur since 1996. Before becoming president he was the SGPC's honorary chief secretary, and had served as its general secretary in 2019.

Election and re-elections. The SGPC's general house elects its president every year. On 29 November 2021 Dhami succeeded Bibi Jagir Kaur, winning 122 of the 142 votes cast against Mithu Singh Kahneke's 19. On 3 November 2025 he won a fifth consecutive term, by 117 votes of 136 against Kahneke's 18. The general house itself was last elected in 2011. In October 2026 four Sikh organisations wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah asking for the SGPC elections that the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, requires every five years.

The Akal Takht order and the Jathedars. On 2 December 2024 the Akal Takht punished Sukhbir Singh Badal and other leaders for the mistakes of the Akali Dal and its government from 2007 to 2017, and set up a seven-member committee, headed by Dhami, to run a membership drive and hold party elections within six months. Dhami later left it, asking the Jathedar to remove him.

On 10 February 2025 the SGPC removed Giani Harpreet Singh as Jathedar of Takht Damdama Sahib. Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh called the move "highly condemnable" and "unfortunate." On 17 February Dhami announced his resignation as SGPC president on "moral grounds with immediate effect," saying his loyalty remained with the Akal Takht. On 7 March the SGPC executive removed Giani Raghbir Singh as Akal Takht Jathedar, leaving him head granthi of the Golden Temple, and made Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj acting Jathedar; the report gave no reasons. On 17 March the executive unanimously rejected Dhami's resignation. The Tribune of 19 March reports that Sukhbir Singh Badal, Balwinder Singh Bhunder and other Akali leaders visited his house in Hoshiarpur, and that after a closed-door meeting he said he would resume his duties within three or four days. Badal praised his commitment and said the Panth faced outside interference.

Key moments

• 29 November 2021: first elected SGPC president.
• 2 December 2024: heads the committee named in the Akal Takht order.
• 17 February 2025: resigns; the SGPC executive rejects it on 17 March.
• 3 November 2025: re-elected for a fifth term.
• 26 to 28 May 2026: clashes with the SIT in the 328 saroops case.

The 328 saroops. On 7 December 2025 Punjab Police registered an FIR, on the complaint of Bhai Baldev Singh Wadala, naming 16 people, most of them former SGPC officials, over 328 saroops of Sri Guru Granth Sahib said to be missing from the SGPC's publication department; a special investigation team (SIT) was formed on 23 December. In late May 2026 Dhami said the SIT was "going beyond its jurisdiction" by seeking the SGPC's bank records and broadcast agreements, that the SGPC had handed over records four times, and that it might withdraw cooperation. The SIT told the High Court that the SGPC was not cooperating and had not supplied the records sought in 14 letters. The Punjab government says that law and accountability apply equally to all institutions, including religious ones.

What he is known for. Supporters inside the Akali Dal see a steady head of the SGPC at a time of conflict with the state. Critics, among them Giani Raghbir Singh in February 2025, say the removal of Jathedars undermined the independence of the Takht Sahibs. The two views rest on the same events.