Punjab select panel seeks views to prevent sacrilege incidents

Chandigarh, Aug 19 (IANS) Taking the sensitive issue of sacrilege of religious scriptures seriously, the Punjab government has introduced a draft law to prevent sacrilege of religious scriptures, the ‘Punjab Prevention of Offences against Holy Scriptures Bill, 2025’ in the legislative Assembly.

In this connection, Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan has constituted a select committee under the chairmanship of Inderbir Singh Nijjar, who is holding meetings every week to discuss this issue by getting people's opinions.

Advertisements have been placed in various newspapers to seek suggestions from the public, and the committee is receiving a lot of suggestions.

The committee meeting held on August 12 was attended by experts from Punjabi University, Patiala -- Jaspreet Kaur Sandhu, Department of Sikhism, Gurmeet Singh Sidhu, Department of Religion, Dharamvir Singh, Department of Sikhism, Gurmail Singh, Jaswinder Singh and Dr Tejinder Kaur, Department of Religious Studies. They discussed the issue with the committee and gave their valuable suggestions.

In Tuesday’s meeting of the select committee experts of religious studies from Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar -- Amarjit Singh, Head Sikh Studies, Chairman Syed Raihan Hasan Rizvi, Urdu Persian Department Sunil Kumar, Head Hindi Department Pawan Kumar, Law Department Pintu Emerson, Department of Architecture, and Prof Satnam Singh Deol, Head, Department of Political Science were present.

They discussed this issue with the committee and gave their valuable suggestions regarding the Bill. The committee thanked all these subject experts. All members, including the Chairman, were present at the meeting of the select committee.

The committee has also requested the President of the Bar Association and the Chairman of the Bar Council of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to give their suggestions in its next meeting to be held on August 26.

The committee has also requested retired judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to provide their suggestions in writing to them.

--IANS

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