'Let's Not Add To Holidays' : Supreme Court Dismisses Plea Seeking National Holiday For Guru Gobind Jayanti

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (March 17) dismissed a petition seeking to declare Guru Gobind Jayanti as a national holiday.

A bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta dismissed a writ petition filed in 2020 by the All India Shiromani Singh Sabha.

Justice Mehta, commenting that India was a "holy land of holidays", said, "Let us not add to that".

When the bench expressed disinclination to entertain the matter, Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, for the petitioner, pressed the prayer in the petition seeking a uniform policy for public holidays.  The petitioner also had sought directions to formulate a uniform policy for the declaration of national holidays as against the "whims and fancies of various political groups".

However, the bench refused.

The petitioner was primarily aggrieved by the fact that the birth anniversary of the 10th Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singhji's has yet not been declared a public holiday, although he is an important historic figure.

The PIL stated that there was no legislation dealing with declaration of public holidays. However, in countries like New Zealand, the UK and the USA, the holidays were governed by the legislation.

Public holidays are declared through executive instructions and they are based on "whims and fancies" of various political and community groups, the plea stated.

In this backdrop, the petitioner sought a direction for issuing guidelines for declaring public and gazetted holidays all over the country. The Union Government and all State Governments were added as respondents. In 2021, the Court had issued notice to the respondents on the plea.

Case :All India Shiromani Singh Sabha v. Union of India and others | W.P.(C) No. 1474/2020