Bibi Jagir Kaur (Labana Sikh) is the first woman to be elected for the second time as the president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) that manages the historic Sikh shrines and some educational institutions in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
Ms. Kaur's name was proposed by the senior Akali leader, Sukhdev Singh Bhaur, and seconded by another SGPC member, Harswinder Singh. There were no other contenders.
She had held the same post from March 1999 to November 2000, when her name figured in the controversy surrounding the death of her daughter, Harpreet Kaur . Ms. Kaur is facing trial for this before the CBI's special court in Patiala.
The post had been vacant since the death of the Akali stalwart, Gurcharan Singh Tohra, who served for 26 terms. He died in March, 2004 after a brief illness.
