YUBA CITY: A Sutter County judge has refused to ratify an election at the Sri Guru Nanak ‘Sikh Temple that would have given [power at the facility to a group of dissident parishioners.
Superior Court Judge Timothy Evans said he could not ratify the 1991 election in which those casting ballots voted 1,617 to write new bylaws for the temple and 1,617 t0 1 to appoint a five member interim panel to oversee operations. The findings were in Evans’ statement of intended decision filed this week.
But Evans did order current directors to hold a meeting and vote ‘on proposal changes to the bylaws. ‘A majority vows would validate any changes, the judge ruled.
The ruling follows a nonjury trial in December on a lawsuit filed by the temple against several parishioners who were at the forefront of complaints last year that board ‘members had violated temple bylaws.
Temple officials claimed in the suit that efforts early last year to bring into question the bookkeeping at the facility stemmed from an attempt to overrun the temple and take control The suit sought to restrain those parishioners from taking control of the board and to invalidate the June 1991 election. ‘Named as defendants in the suit were Tejinder Singh Doanjh, Satwinder S. Gill, Surjit Chima, Kuldip S.Sanghera, Resham S. Kajley, Gurmit S Suprai, Karail S. Chima, Iqbal S. Johl, Ranjit ‘S. Johl and Gian S Joh. ‘The suit alleged that Dosanjh and Gill were involved in the attempted takeover of a Sikh Temple in Turlock. It claims the two were trying to accomplish the same thing at the Bogue Road facility.
In his ruling, Evans noted that members of the opposition the ‘Committee to Preserve the Sri Guru Nanak Sikh Temple “obtained lists from the Tierra Buena and Live Oak temples, and consulted other reference works such as the telephone book, in preparing a lst ‘of members of the congregation.”
But he also noted that “people whose names were not on the list ‘were allowed to register, and then vote the same day at the temple.
“At the level of civil government, it is obvious that some set of controls must exist in order to identify ‘qualified electorate,” the ruling said, “The congregation which voted, was artificial at best.”
Evans also ordered that the original directors of the temple be notified of their continued status as directors and that if they do not wish to participate further, they are to resign within 10 days. The remaining directors will be given neutral moderator to discuss a series of proposed amendments to the bylaws.
Those amendments include provisions for holding regular elections Proposed changes are to be discussed on a sentence by sentence basis” and a majority vote will validate a particular provision. Fifty percent of the board members will constitute a quorum, Evans said,
‘The ruling also determined that ‘no damages will be awarded.
‘Evans said in the 38page ruling that Dosanjh “played a central and vocal part” in the committees presentation to the current board ‘during March 1991 service.
“This individual had minimal association with the personalities involved in the formation, nurture ‘and development of the Bogue Road temple,” Evans involvement, loud presentation, factual claims and misstatements, and his interminable harangue contributed to the escalation of dispute between the wo group and the intransigence which each side has adopted.”
In an earlier court action, Parish joiners at the Bogue Road temple and temple officials avoided atrial over a suit filed by parishioners claiming there were bookkeeping irregularities and by law violations at the facility. Attorneys for both sides agreed on series of stipulations in that suit,
Article extracted from this publication >> March 13, 1992
