The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) will file a defamation suit against the Delhi state government for defying the orders of the Supreme Court on holding elections to the Delhi Sikh gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) before December 31 this year.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the Core Committee of the SAD presided over by the party patron and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal here this evening and attended among others by the party president and state Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.

Giving details of the decisions taken at the meeting, party spokesperson and advisor to chief minister on national affairs Harcharan Bains said that the party has authorised the SAD Secretary and Legislator Daljit Singh Cheema to initiate proceedings for filing a defamation suit against the Delhi government "for deliberately defying court orders on DSGMC elections under one flimsy pretext or another".

"The Delhi government first used the revision of electoral rolls as an excuse but the court dismissed it saying that the rolls should be revised within nine months after the scheduled election," Bains said.

The apex court orders had been very specific, calling for elections to be held before December 31 "positively" and any attempt to sabotage it amounted to an act of grave and unforgivable affront to the highest court in the country, the party added.