Chandigarh, September 30, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The Election Commission of India’s handling of the application of Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De) for registration as a political party has cast a cloud over the Commission’s working and independence, according to KBS Sidhu, retired Special Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab, and former District Election Officer, Amritsar.
The matter came up in the Delhi High Court on Tuesday, and the Commission must tell the court by October 1 when it proposes to decide.
“Irrespective of whether one agrees with the party’s policies, registration is its legal right,” KBS Sidhu said.
He pointed out that the law requires a new party only to pledge, in its constitution, true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India and to uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.
“Its leader, Bhai Amritpal Singh, has sworn that oath twice,” he said: once before the Superintendent of Dibrugarh Central Jail, the officer authorised by the Election Commission itself, when he filed his nomination for Khadoor Sahib in 2024, and again on the floor of the Lok Sabha on July 5, 2024. His party’s constitution repeats the same pledge.
Yet the Commission held the party’s application in abeyance for twenty months on what appear to be frivolous grounds and extraneous considerations, KBS Sidhu said. It then told the High Court on Tuesday, without disclosing any material, that it had “certain apprehensions pertaining to national security.”
“A vague assertion made after twenty months of silence is not a ground known to the election law,” he said.
KBS Sidhu described Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De) as arguably a genuine regional party, with two sitting Members of Parliament: Bhai Amritpal Singh, elected from Khadoor Sahib by a margin of 1,97,120 votes, and Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, elected from Faridkot, both with convincing margins over the established parties.
He recalled that the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) of Simranjit Singh Mann, who has long advocated a sovereign state for Sikhs, has been a registered party for decades without national security ever being raised against it.
If the State genuinely considers an organisation a threat, he said, the law gives it a clear remedy: a formal ban under the anti-terror law, with reasons tested by a tribunal presided over by a High Court judge.
No such step has been taken. Bhai Amritpal Singh’s detention under the National Security Act lapsed in April 2026 and was not renewed, and he is now held in the Ajnala case, which the ordinary criminal courts will try.
KBS Sidhu noted that registration is not a favour. It carries concrete legal consequences: a common symbol for the 2027 Assembly election, tax-compliant funding, relief on campaign expenditure, and anti-defection discipline over elected members. The window for seeking a common symbol for 2027 is already open.
The timing, he said, could hardly be worse. The Commission’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls has drawn criticism across the country, and its two Election Commissioners have placed fourteen written objections on record against decisions taken under the Chief Election Commissioner.
“An institution so publicly divided needed to be seen as scrupulously even-handed. This file was its opportunity. Instead, a nascent party has had to knock at the doors of the Delhi High Court for a registration certificate that is its legal right and democratic prerogative,” he said.
He warned that the objection would needlessly deepen alienation in Punjab, particularly among voters of Khadoor Sahib, whose MP has not been permitted to attend a single sitting of Parliament since taking his oath, despite repeated petitions to the High Court.
“This is neither good for constitutional democracy nor for the reputation of the Election Commission’s independence,” KBS Sidhu said.
KBS Sidhu has discharged statutory duties under the election law at every level, from presiding officer to District Election Officer, Amritsar, and served as an election observer of the Election Commission of India in three Lok Sabha elections. He is the Founder-Editor of The KBS Chronicle.
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