The Jathedar of the Akal Takht is appointed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, the elected body established under British colonial-era legislation and subsequent Indian law to administer major historic Sikh gurdwaras in Punjab, a governance arrangement that gives a democratically elected lay body decisive influence over who holds what is otherwise regarded as the community's most senior religious authority, an intersection of religious and institutional-political authority that has occasionally made Jathedar appointments and hukamnamas subjects of broader debate within the Sikh community about the proper relationship between the SGPC's own institutional and political interests and the Akal Takht's claimed independent religious authority.
Hukamnamas issued from the Akal Takht have addressed matters ranging from religious practice and the censure of individuals found to have seriously violated Sikh conduct codes, to positions on significant historical and political events affecting the Sikh community, illustrating that the Jathedar's role, while religious in its formal authority, has repeatedly intersected with wider social and political questions facing Sikhs, particularly in Punjab, across the institution's history.