VANCOUVER – The Ross Gurdwara court case has yet faced another delay. Sikh Sangat Seva Society’s petition was originally to be heard in December 2014 in a one day hearing.
Challenges were made to the “unfair membership process, enrolment irregularities, faulty memberships, forgery, dumping of memberships, appointment of a 3rd party monitor just two months before the deadline after membership flooding, multiple memberships and nullification of the new ‘self appointed’ executive that was to take power on January 2015.”
The Ross executive went to court prior to the hearing date and sought adjournment of the petition, installation of their new executive and sought a one week trial instead of the one day.
The judge did not adjourn the petition and the new executive was dismissed. Instead, the court ordered the old executive to stay in power until the case was heard in February. Instead of going ahead with the trial as scheduled the case is being delayed once again. The Ross executive went back to court with an application, sighting counsel unavailability, and has changed the trial date to April.
“We feel this is just another delay tactic to keep control for as long as they can and to make the case costly for us. We are spending from our pockets but they have the unlimited resources of the golak at their disposal for which there is no accountability,” Sikh Sangat representatives said in a press release.
“The people have a right to know how much has been spent on this un-necessary litigation and so far we are not being provided any financials. If the rules from the last election had been implemented this court case would not have happened. We want them to pay for their legal bills and not use the Gurdwara donations. People do not give donations for court cases caused by wrongdoings. If all the rules from the last election had been followed we would not be here starting all over again.”
Sikh Sangat said they has found many irregularities with membership forms and tax receipt books. “Donation books were used for membership registration which is to be kept separate from the donations. In addition, same receipt number has been used to register multiple members,” they said.
“This means that many voters did not pay the membership fees. Some receipts numbers were used for many voters. If the process was fair, how did this happen? They submitted voters forms without even collecting the membership fees.
“We are looking into negligence, misappropriation of funds, bank account accountability and the use of the society for personal gains. Federal law holding directors liable is also being explored. The days are gone when executives could do whatever they pleased. We want to clean house so that no opposition ever has to deal with what we have gone through. We want a fair process for all regardless of political affiliation. If you are working in the best interest of the community then let the process be fair and let the voters decide instead of cheating and wasting the donations for lawyer’s fees. If an executive does a good job then people will see it and they will vote them in. Let the best people serve the community. That is all we want and that is what the fight is about. We will fight this to the end and expose the facts,” stated Sikh Sangat.
