We had earlier reported that the ISKCON Bangalore and ISKCON Mumbai’s legal tussle was listed for hearing before the Honorable apex court http://www.struggle-for-truth.org/articles/court-case-update-february-23-2012 but did not come up for hearing.
As per the Dec 14th interim order of the Honorable Supreme Court an oversight committee was set up. The committee was to be chaired by Justice Raveendran and was slated to have one representative each from ISKCON Bangalore (Sri Stoka Krishna Dasa) and ISKCON Mumbai (Sri Ananda Tirtha Dasa). Since then the committee has been convened and held several meetings. (Click here to view Dec 14th Order.) When the Special leave petition was filed before the Supreme Court, the honorable court while passing the interim order on 6th June 2011 had said, “…we express the pious hope that the learned counsel appearing for the respective parties shall find some time and examine the possibility of amicably resolving the issues involved in the present matter. We would also expect that the different sections of this august institution would avoid unnecessary litigation and office bearers of both the societies shall fully co-operate in this behalf…” We are not aware if any steps have been taken to resolve the issues amicably. It will be interesting to see if the self appointed gurus of ISKCON are willing to in any way allow system of initiation as outlined in July 9th directive of Srila Prabhupada as sought by ISKCON Bangalore.
In meanwhile we have received information from both sides that some of the interim applications filed by both sides before the Supreme Court earlier have been listed for hearing before the divisional bench of Honorable Justices Altmas Kabir and Nijjar today. It was scheduled to be heard yesterday but has been postponed to today.
We have learnt from our sources from ISKCON Bangalore that in the interim application it has sought the Honorable Court to modify the order passed by it on 14th Dec to include only the suit schedule property and not all the properties of the ISKCON Bangalore society (Registered in
1978).
We have also learnt from our sources in ISKCON Mumbai that ISKCON Mumbai had applied to the Apex court seeking to dismiss the special leave petition filed by ISKCON Bangalore.
Sources said that the application of ISKCON Mumbai is based on some objections to rental agreements of some of the built up areas on Hare Krishna Hill. This interim application of Mumbai’s has also been listed for hearing today.
We have also learnt that the contempt of court petition filed by ISKCON Bangalore against Dayaram dasa and other office bearers of ISKCON Mumbai has also been listed for hearing today along with the above two interim applications. Pronouncement of interim orders on these applications will of course be very crucial to the ongoing litigation, but will not be final on the ongoing legal dispute.
Please watch our news and reports column for further updates.
Editor’s Note:As per the latest update received ( at 5pm) hearing has been postponed and listed for tomorrow Thursday 10th May 2012.