Hearing a public interest litigation seeking reconstruction of the Gyan Godri Gurudwara near Har Ki Paidi in Haridwar, the Uttarakhand High Court has directed the State government and the Municipal Corporation of Haridwar (MCH) to clarify the situation within one week. The division bench of acting chief justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari and justice Vivek Bharti Sharma issued this direction while hearing the matter on Thursday. The PIL is slated to be heard next on January 6, 2024.

According to the case details, the Shiromani Prabandhak Committee, Amritsar has filed the PIL in the Uttarakhand High Court seeking the reconstruction of the Gyan Godri Gurudwara near Har Ki Paidi. The petition states when the first Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Nanak had first visited Haridwar, the then king of Landhaura had held an event at his residence. Land was also allocated near Har Ki Paidi for the Gyan Godri Gurudwara. The said Gurudwara was in place till 1976. In 1976, the authorities removed the Gurudwara from that site on the assurance that it would be rebuilt after beautification work in the area. However, this has not been done so far, the petition states. A complaint about this had also been made to the national minorities commission in 2001. The then district magistrate had also sent a recommendation to the government for allocating land but the land which was to be allotted belonged to the government of Uttar Pradesh. A recommendation was sent again but no action has been taken on it so far, the petitioner has stated.