Karnataka High Court dismisses appeal of ISKCON Mumbai followers

Karnataka High Court dismisses appeal of ISKCON Mumbai followers

PRESS NOTE

Honourable High Court of Karnataka dismissed an appeal filed by some of the followers of ISKCON Mumbai on April 9th, 2015. Honourable Justice Anand Byrareddy was hearing an appeal filed by followers of ISKCON Mumbai seeking to get control of ISKCON Bangalore Society (Regn. No. S.49/78-79), claiming that they are the actual Governing body members. Earlier the same application was filed in the City Civil Court as OS 1758 of 2003 in Bangalore by ISKCON Mumbai followers and had been dismissed.

In the City Civil Court, Sri Amiya Vilas Swami and other followers of ISKCON Mumbai had claimed that they were the original founding members of ISKCON Bangalore Society (Regn. No. S.49/78-79). They had alleged that Sri Madhu Pandit Dasa and others had illegally taken over the society and were imposters. In an elaborate judgment running into several hundred pages, the Trial Court said that the claims of ISKCON Mumbai followers was legally untenable and dismissed their suit with costs.

During the course of the trial, some of the followers of ISKCON Mumbai including Sri Amiya Vilas Swami and others withdrew from the suit. But the remaining followers of ISKCON Mumbai went on an appeal before the Honourable High Court of Karnataka. During the course of the appeal, some more followers of ISKCON Mumbai withdrew from the suit citing various reasons. Sri Prasannatma Das, a follower of ISKCON Mumbai was the lone appellant left for some considerable time. Recently, Sri Amiya Vilas Swami once again sought to implead himself as an additional appellant. Today, the Honourable High Court dismissed his application and the entire appeal itself on merits.

It may be recalled that ISKCON Mumbai is predominantly controlled by self-made Acharyas (not appointed by the Founder and Acharya of ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada). Although Srila Prabhupada had given a written institutional directive on how he shall continue to be the Acharya of the institution and his senior disciples shall act as Representative of the Acharya, soon after his passing away, his immediate followers usurped the position of Acharya in ISKCON.  This has led to much abuse of powers, financial and moral corruption which is continuing even to this day all over the world. When Sri Madhu Pandit Dasa and other members of ISKCON Bangalore questioned ISKCON leaders in 1999 on these matters, ISKCON Mumbai and their agents and followers have been trying to oust Sri Madhu Pandit Dasa and others from the well-known ISKCON temple on Hare Krishna Hill, Rajajinagar, Bangalore. Devotees of ISKCON Bangalore following the written directives of ISKCON Founder-Acharya, Srila Prabhupada, adheres to the directive that Srila Prabhupada continues to remain the sole initiating Guru  and Acharya of ISKCON; whereas ISKCON Mumbai seeks to appoint successors to Srila Prabhupada, who will act as Acharyas based on a no-objection voting system. In 1999, the followers of ISKCON Mumbai and their self-made Acharyas tried to physically storm the Temple on Hare Krishna Hill, which forced devotees of ISKCON Bangalore to file a suit seeking a permanent injunction of non-interference in its affairs against ISKCON Mumbai and its self-made gurus.

Finding that their authority was disturbed, the self-made gurus of ISKCON resorted to all kinds of unethical, political means to disturb the yeoman services rendered by the devotees of ISKCON Bangalore. One such attempt was filing of this frivolous suit through some followers of ISKCON Mumbai falsely claiming to vest control of the ISKCON Bangalore society (regn no S.49/78-79). The Honourable High Court’s verdict today ensured that these frivolous claims come to a naught.

Sri Madhu Pandit Dasa, President of ISKCON Bangalore said, “It is indeed a great victory for the devotees of ISKCON Bangalore who have been subjected to relentless harassment by the self-made gurus of ISKCON. We hope that the self-made gurus of ISKCON will stop disturbing the various services rendered by ISKCON Bangalore to the society.”

In the service of Lord Krishna and mankind,

Bharatarshabha Dasa
Head- Communication & Public Relations
ISKCON, Bangalore-10
M: 093410 34710

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DECCAN HERALD
Saturday 11 April 2015
News updated at 3:24 PM IST

HC dismisses Mumbai group’s claim over B’luru Iskcon

Bengaluru, April 10, 2015, DHNS

The High Court on Thursday dismissed an appeal by Mumbai Iskcon, seeking the ownership of the Hare Krishna Hills on West of Chord Road here.

Hearing the appeal by Prasannatma Das and others, followers of Mumbai Iskcon, Justice Anand Byra Reddy upheld the lower court order, which had in 2009 dismissed the claim of ownership by Iskcon Mumbai and observed that the Mumbai group had no locus standi to claim ownership of the Bengaluru centre.

The appellants had claimed that they were the original owners of the said property and had termed Madhu Pandita Dasa, chairman of the governing body of Iskcon, Bengaluru, and his followers as imposters. They had illegally proclaimed themselves as owners of Iskcon, Bengaluru, the appellants had said.

They had sought that they be given control of Iskcon, Bengaluru and declared rightful owners of Hare Krishna Hills, popularly known as Iskcon temple.

The court also allowed Madhu Pandita Das to continue as the head of Iskcon, Bengaluru. With this, the long legal battle since the late 1990s between the two Iskcon groups has come to an end.

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Congratulations Madhu Pandit Dasa Prabhu! This is great news, especially the part about ISKCON’s pretender gurus having to pay your legal defense costs! IMHO, this is just the beginning of the bad karma that they are going to have to endure for their colossal offenses to their godbrothers/sisters and to Srila Prabhupada. ISKCON’s bogus gurus would rather lose the multi-million dollar court case than admit that they are/were wrong about the ritvik issue.