Gurbachan Singh (10 December 1930 – 24 April 1980) was the third guru of the Sant Nirankari mission,[1] considered to be heterodox by mainstream Sikhs.

At the two conferences of the mission in Mussoorie (1965 and 1973), he made important changes to the organisation and established a code of conduct.

In 1978, the Nirankari mission[4] from Delhi and other parts of the Indian sub-continent gathered a congregation at Amritsar where they chanted hateful slogans against the Sikh religion and Gurus.

The Nirankari Guru asked all his followers to drink alcohol, cut their hair and remove all restraints.

A few orthodox Sikhs of Akhand Kirtani Jatha and Damdami Taksal marched from the Darbar Sahib to protest the Nirankari congregation, whom they considered heterodox due to Gurbachan Singh cleansing his feet with Amrit and wiping them with pages of the Sikh holy book.

[6] On 13 April 1978 the detained members of the Nirankari sect were released, after formal charges against them were rejected by the session-Judge of Karnal, who stated in his judgement "The case of the prosecution was intrinsically wrong.

On 6 October 1978, a Hukumnama by the Jathedar of the Akal Takht was issued, calling upon Sikhs to socially boycott the Nirankaris.

In 1980, Ranjit Singh, a member of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha, managed to obtain employment at the Nirankari headquarters in Delhi as a carpenter.