Court Issues Notices over Stolen Sikh Reference Library Materials

April

2026

The Punjab and Haryana High Court (PHHC) has issued notices to the Indian Union government, the Ministry of Defence and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a 2019 petition seeking recovery of books and religious articles allegedly taken from the Sikh Reference Library (SRL) at the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) complex during Indian Army's 'Operation Blue Star' in 1984. The petition being heard by a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Ramesh Kumari concerns manuscripts, books, and other religious items removed from the SRL. The petitioner Satinder Singh has sought directions for the preparation of a comprehensive inventory of all manuscripts, artifacts, and literature removed on 7 June 1984, as well as a separate list of items returned to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). In its reply, placed on record, the SGPC acknowledged that a number of religious articles and books were taken away during ‘Operation Blue Star’. It said some items were later returned while others remain in the possession of the Army, the CBI, and the union government. Former SGPC secretary Kulwant Singh Mannan had received and signed a list of 85 items which belonged to the Akhand Kirtani Jatha (religious sect). Kulwant says 10K items in two registers have not been returned, which include 512 saroops (tomes) of Guru Granth Sahib (Sikh scripture and charter). He also says, all SGPC records from 1925 onward in the Teja Singh Samundri Hall have been destroyed. Satinder puts the number of missing SRL items at 12,613 books and several newspapers. These books were not only in Panjabi but also in Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Sindhi, Persian, Arabic, Tibetan, English, and French, and they covered diverse subjects, rare paintings, and newspapers. Concurrently, one of the assassins of former Panjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, Balwant Singh Rajoana has written to Sri Akal Takht Sahib (Eternal Throne) to direct the SGPC to withdraw the mercy plea filed on his behalf with the union government. Rajoana has been on the death row since his conviction in 1995. He said, 'Living on death row is worse than the execution itself. I do not want to beg for mercy' (earlier coverage).