VANCOUVER – In an ongoing war between the Sikh Sangat Society of BC and the temporary installed Executive Committee at Khalsa Diwan Society (KDS), the Sikh Sangat is alleging that there was misconduct on the part of the KDS Exeuctive in not following constitutions and bylaws of the Society at a meeting held at Ross Gurdwara July 5, 2015.
Here are the allegations made by the Sikh Sangat Society:
*The current committee is a “temporary” executive and is not authorized to hold AGM’s or make big decisions involving millions of dollars.
*All members were not informed of the meeting. This fact was brought up but they claimed to have Canada post proof of the mailings but later admitted that most members had been mailed and that some may have been missed and further that if a few members were missed they did not find this of importance as most had been mailed. This is not how the business of the Society works.
*AGM rules require proof of membership of attendees. This was not done. Members and non-members were present and voted.
*An AGM should take place after the Sunday service when the Sangat is finished with prayers and not in the middle of the Diwan as it was done this past weekend.
*To implement changes a 75% approval is required. None of the voting met the approval; they pushed ahead with the raising of hands followed by a Jakara and no counting of the actual numbers of votes for or against each proposal. This gimmick approval takes them to next week for a ballot box vote which they will control and will give them access to a $4.5 million dollar credit line.
Sikh Sangat said the Exeuctive also claimed that the financial report was late due to opposition lawyer having possession and that it took time.
“They failed to tell everyone that they denied us the financial documents for months and only through lawyers did we have access. They caused the delay. Even if delay was as they claim that still does not justify their rush to get everything approved. As per the rules, the process must be followed and Sangat must have time for reviewing,” Sikh Sangat said.
“The court case is in two months; why are they rushing to get all this passed quickly and by breaching the rules of time? Another 2-3 weeks would not have caused any issues or delays.”
The two parties are soon headed back to cour to decide the election membership process before a new election is helfd.
