ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>T&#256R&#256 SI&#7748GH SARD&#256R (1888-1956)</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="TR,SIDGH,SARDR,Person,Person"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279T&#256R&#256 SI&#7748GH, SARD&#256R (1888-1956), lawyer, legislator and judge, was born in 1888, the son of Prat&#257p Si&#7749gh Gill of Mog&#257, a district town of the Punjab. Having matriculated from a local high school in 1903, he graduated from <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 College, Amritsar, in 1907 and obtained his law degree from the Pañj&#257b University, Lahore, in 1910. He started legal practice at F&#299rozpur but soon shifted to his native Mog&#257. His interest in local civic affairs, besides his professional work, soon made him popular. He also took active interest in the Gurdw&#257r&#257 Reform movement launched in 1920 and participated in the Jaito <i>morch&#257</i> which commenced in August 1923. Although the Shiroma&#7751&#299 Gurdw&#257r&#257 Parbandhak Committee was declared an unlawful organization in October 1923, it decided to sponsor its own candidates in the elections to the Punjab Legislative Council held in December 1923. T&#257r&#257 Si&#7749gh, one of its candidates, won by an overwhelming majority from the F&#299rozpur (Sikh) Rural Constituency. In the Council he fought for progressive measures such as prohibition, reduction of tax burden and increase in irrigation facilities in the rural sector, separation of executive and judiciary, and protection of peasants against urban money-lenders. A measure for which T&#257r&#257 Si&#7749gh will be particularly remembered was the Sikh Gurdw&#257r&#257s and Shrines Bill 1925 which he introduced as a private member's bill. It was ultimately passed on 9 July 1925 as the Sikh Gurdw&#257r&#257s Act, as put forth through the Council by Bh&#257&#299 Jodh Si&#7749gh. The Shiroma&#7751&#299 Gurdw&#257r&#257 Parbandhak Committee now regulated the administration of historical and other Sikh <i>gurdw&#257r&#257s</i>. In the first elections held under the Act in 1926, T&#257r&#257 Si&#7749gh was elected a member of the Shiroma&#7751&#299 Gurdw&#257r&#257 Parbandhak Committee. He was re-elected for a second term in 1929. T&#257r&#257 Si&#7749gh was a judge of the Pa&#7789i&#257l&#257 High Court from 1930 to 1940. He represented the Sikhs at the Third Round Table Conference held at London in November-December 1932, where he vehemently opposed the communal representation as a basis for the new constitution. In a speech made on 23 December 1932, he said, "...the foundation upon which we are building our Constitution is unsound... It is being forced on us and that is why at various stages attempts have been made from different sides of the Conference to ask for safeguards." The safeguards he demanded for the Sikhs in the Punjab ran broadly on the same lines as those demanded by Ujjal Si&#7749gh and Samp&#363ran Si&#7749gh, Sikh representatives at the Second Conference (September-December 1930), viz. special provisions for the protection of the Sikh interests in the legislature and in administration in the Punjab as well as at the Centre, and no statutory majority for the majority community (Muslims) in the Punjab.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;T&#257r&#257 Si&#7749gh resigned from the bench of the Pa&#7789i&#257l&#257 High Court in 1940 for reasons of health. He died at Mog&#257 on 12 August 1956.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1">Vis&#257kh&#257 Si&#7749gh, Sant, <i>M&#257lv&#257 ltih&#257s</i>.Kishanpura, 1954<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Major Gurmukh Si&#7749gh (Retd.)<br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>