Brisbane Sikh Temple’s management committee acted improperly by rejecting membership applications

Thousands of membership applications were rejected by Brisbane Sikh Temple before a violent and bloody street fight involving up to 50 men. WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES

Brisbane Sikh Temple’s management committee acted improperly when it rejected thousands of membership applications last year, a Supreme Court judge has found.

A violent and bloody street fight allegedly broke out the night of September 13 last year, after applications were rejected, in the lead up to a planned Brisbane Sikh Temple committee election.

Up to 50 men from two warring groups from the Sikh community were allegedly involved in the affray at Runcorn, with swords and other weapons used to inflict severe injuries.

Fifteen people were later charged and cases are still before the courts.

In March 2021 members of the temple, on Logan Road at Eight Mile Plains, conducted a membership drive that resulted in 3156 applications for ordinary membership.

On August 30, the temple committee accepted 1005 applications and rejected 2151.

There had been only 235 members of the temple before the membership drive.

The Brisbane Sikh Temple. Picture: Supplied

Three members of the Sikh community filed an urgent Supreme Court application, claiming the committee contravened the temple’s constitution when it rejected the membership applications.

A judge imposed an interlocutory injunction on September 24, which delayed the election of a new management committee for the next two years.

Ordinary members can nominate candidates for the management committee and, in certain circumstances, be elected as management committee members.

On February 25, Supreme Court Justice Declan Kelly found the Brisbane Sikh Temple management committee’s decision to reject 2151 membership applications was void and had no effect.

Justice Kelly directed the committee to consider the rejected applications in accordance with the constitution and the law.

In his decision, Justice Kelly found the committee rejected the applications for an improper purpose.

Injuries caused during a violent street fight allegedly involving members of the Brisbane Sikh Temple in September 2021. Picture: Supplied

The Temple submitted the committee had “broad and largely unfettered” discretion to accept or reject applications, provided it acted in good faith and in accordance with an object of the Constitution, so as to impose a limit or cap on membership numbers.

Justice Kelly rejected that submission.

He said the Constitution provided, in the clearest terms, in more than one place, that the number of ordinary members was to be unlimited.

The court heard the committee applied a criteria that an applicant for membership had to have been a member in the previous five years.

“I should add that the decision to apply the criteria to limit membership appears to have been motivated by safety concerns connected with the number of “occupants” that could be safely allowed at the Temple’s premises at any given time,” Justice Kelly said.

The judge said management of visitation and occupancy were separate and distinct from any consideration about whether a person should be rejected from membership, in accordance with the Constitution.

In his decision, Justice Kelly referred to a proposal to allow an extension of time for membership registration, past 5pm on the drive’s last day, causing significant unrest.

He said it led to police being called and a large number of applications not being registered before the closing time.

“The large number of registered applications gave rise to some concerns that not all of the applications were bona fide,” Justice Kelly said.

“In this regard, a number of individuals had paid not just for their own applications, but for large numbers of other applications.”

The membership drive was conducted during the Covid pandemic and lock down periods, with restrictions on public gatherings.