Chandigarh, May 19 -- A section of Sikh intellectuals, legal experts and community representatives on Monday sought repeal of the Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar (Amendment) Act, 2026, contending that the amendments passed by the Punjab assembly last month raised serious religious and legal concerns. During a press conference at the Kendri Sri Guru Singh Sabha office in Chandigarh, justice Nirmal Singh, a retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana high court, said the amended law must be repealed because its provisions lowered the sanctity of the Guru Granth Sahib. "There are many unanswered questions, such as who will investigate in case sacrilege takes place and how will the holy scripture be kept as a case property, which could amount to sacrilege in itself," said the retired judge, pointing gaps in the amendments. "I was a member of the vidhan sabha committee formed to give suggestions before the amendments were introduced and I had raised objections then. When the act was passed initially 18 years ago, it was objectionable then and it is flawed even now," he added. He also questioned Akal Takht jathedar Kuldeep Singh Gargaj's move to ask assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan to summon the House within 15 days and delete all amendments in the law, stating that the Speaker possessed no power to call the House or pass laws. Sikh scholar Bhai Ashok Singh Bagrian said according to Sikh maryada, when it came to the sanctity of the Guru Granth Sahib, no level of interference by the government was acceptable. "How would the Guru Granth Sahib be handled as a case property? It is a big question," he said, demanding scrapping of the law. Advocate Puran Singh Hundal explained that the inclusion of term "custodian" had made everyone - from a sewadar to Akal Takht jathedar - liable for legal action. Gurpreet Singh, a spokesperson of Kendri Sri Guru Singh Sabha, said the Sikh community was capable of taking its decisions according to the rehat maryada. "Holy scriptures cannot be subjected to any sort of state control, bureaucratic regulation and police action. Guru Granth Sahib belongs to the spiritual, theological and institutional life of the Sikh Panth," he said. On May 8, the Akal Takht, the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs, had rejected the amended Act and issued a 15-day ultimatum to the state government to amend it. A day later, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann asserted that there was no question of rolling back the law, which had been implemented after receiving the Punjab governor's nod and was receiving overwhelming support from the Sikh community across the world....