E-Paper
Supreme Court agrees to revisit May ruling on control of ISKCON Bengaluru temple
Reopening the May 16 decision, a three-judge bench headed by justice M.M. Sundresh issued notice on a review petition filed by ISKCON Mumbai, which claims sole rights over the temple
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to revisit its decision passed six months ago that handed control of ISKCON’s Bengaluru temple to the Bengaluru faction, overturning a Karnataka high court ruling that had favoured the ISKCON Mumbai faction.
Reopening the May 16 decision, a three-judge bench headed by justice M.M. Sundresh issued notice on a review petition filed by ISKCON Mumbai, which claims sole rights over the temple.
The bench, also comprising justices P.K. Mishra and Satish Chandra Sharma, asked the ISKCON Bengaluru faction to respond to the review plea and listed the matter for further hearing on January 22.
The review plea came to be listed before a three-judge bench after an earlier bench of the top court last month delivered a split verdict on whether to entertain the review petition.
The petition had been placed before a bench of Justices J.K. Maheshwari and A.G. Masih. Incidentally, the May 16 judgment was delivered by a bench of justice Abhay S. Oka (since retired) and justice Masih. While justice Maheshwari held that a case for review had been made out, justice Masih stood his ground and dismissed the review.
The Mumbai faction pointed out that ISKCON India was registered in 1971 in Mumbai by the founder of the ISKCON movement, Srila Prabhupada, while the top court committed an “error apparent” by recognising the defunct ISKCON Karnataka society as the owner of ISKCON’s Bengaluru temple and related properties. In doing so, the plea said, the Court ignored serious issues of forgery and fabrication by persons running ISKCON Bengaluru.
The two factions have hotly contested their claims over the seven-acre temple in Bengaluru.
In April 2009, a trial court decided cross-suits filed by the factions in favour of ISKCON Bengaluru. On appeal, the Karnataka high court set aside the trial court verdict and, in a detailed judgment, gave control of the Bengaluru temple to the Mumbai faction. This led to the Bengaluru faction approaching the Supreme Court.
The review plea, filed through advocate B. Vijayalakshmi Menon, said that ISKCON Mumbai had sent ISKCON Trivandrum head Madhu Pandit Das as president of the Bengaluru branch and, on learning of certain irregularities allegedly committed by him, decided to initiate disciplinary proceedings. Realising this, he filed three suits before a Bengaluru court to restrain ISKCON Mumbai from removing him as president. When he failed to secure a favourable order, he allegedly sought to revive the 1978 Karnataka ISKCON society—started by disciples of the founder—through forgery and large-scale manipulation, taking advantage of the fact that both the 1971 (Mumbai-registered) and 1978 societies shared the same name.
