Amritsar/IBNS: Former Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal Tuesday started serving the religious punishment that was given to him by the highest temporal body of Sikhs-Akal Takht- in a 2015 sacrilege case.

The wheelchair-bound Punjab leader was seen sitting at the entrance of the Golden Temple in Amritsar on Tuesday morning, wearing a plaque around his neck and holding a spear.

Senior Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia, brother-in-law of Badal, began his sentence by washing utensils at the Golden Temple.

Akal Takht has punished Sukhbir Badal with cleaning duty in the kitchens and bathrooms of several Gurdwaras, including Amritsar's Golden Temple, for favouring Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in the 2015 sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib.

His father, the late Parkash Singh Badal, also a former Punjab Chief Minister, has been stripped of the Fakhr-e-Qaum (pride of the Sikh community) honour that was bestowed on him in 2011 for services to the community.

Besides Badal, other leaders of the Akali Dal, who were cabinet members in 2015, will clean the bathrooms at Amritsar's Golden Temple on Tuesday from 12 noon to 1 pm.

After this, they will take a bath and serve langar.

The punishment came after Badal had tendered an unconditional apology to the Akal Takht admitting his mistakes.

On Monday, the five high priests of the Sikhs, led by Akal Takht jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh, announced the quantum of 'tankhah (religious punishment for misconduct)'.

The jathedar asked the SAD working committee to accept Badal's resignation as party chief and for a panel to reorganise the party within six months.

Sukhbir Badal was declared a "tankhaiya" in August by Akal Takht after he was found guilty of religious misconduct "for mistakes committed by the party when it was in power in Punjab from 2007 to 2017".

The mistakes included the pardon of Gurmeet Ram Rahim for the sacrilege cases that had triggered clashes between Dera followers and Sikhs in parts of Punjab.

In 2007, Gurmeet Ram Rahim also dressed like the Sikh Gurus and performed a ceremony for which he was excommunicated by the Akal Takht. Sukhbir Singh Badal had allegedly used his influence to get the Dera chief pardoned.