Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee is a committee that looks after the social and religious matters of the Sikh community. In the year 1920, the Gurdwara committee elected 175 members and named it as Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee.

The main aim of the Committee was to look into the maintenance and administration of the Golden Temple Complex and the other gurdwaras of India. The Committee enjoys a historical importance among the sikhs. Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee is popularly known as the Parliament of the Sikh Nation.

The abbreviated form of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee is SGPC, which is most commonly used to refer the committee. Under the Sikh Gurdwara Act 1925, the registered Sikh male and female who are 18 years of age are eligible to vote and select the committee. After a gap of five years election is held to select the committee.

The administration of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee is carried on by an elected chairman, a treasurer and a general secretary. It has other responsibilities like maintaining the security of the temple, financial transactions, organizing religious functions of Gurdwaras. It is the also the responsibility of the committee to preserve the rare artifacts, including books, weapons, clothes, and literature of the Sikh Gurus. The Committee engages itself in various social services by sponsoring and managing a number of educational institutions, medical colleges, hospitals and charitable institutions. In the elections of 2004, Bibi Jagir Kaur was elected as the president of SGPC, who has the honor of becoming the first woman to be elected as the President of SGPC, Amritsar.