While the civil court declared the Bengaluru society as a separate entity entitled to control all Iskcon properties in Karnataka in an order of 2001, the Karnataka high court set it aside in its verdict in 2009 stating that the Bengaluru Iskcon society had “failed” to prove its “title” over the properties in Karnataka.
And thus the legal battle finally shifted to the Supreme Court in 2011 with the Bengaluru society challenging the HC verdict with its counsel pointing out at least 10 alleged legal and factual “flaws” in the HC judgment. The SC while admitting the appeal last year, had passed an order for maintaining the status quo, which means that the Bengaluru society would continue to look after the day-to-day affairs of Iskcon temple in Bengaluru and its various other welfare projects. The major “flaw” pointed out in the appeal by Iskcon’s Karnataka chapter was that since both Mumbai and Bengaluru societies were registered as separate entities then how could the former have control over the latter.
The Bengaluru Development Authority records clearly showed that it had signed the land transfer deed for the temple and other related buildings with the Bengaluru Iskcon trust and Mumbai is nowhere in the picture.
Bombay trust’s claim was that the Bengaluru Iskcon society was only an extension of the movement, which set its feet in the land of the birth of Lord Krishna in 1971 with the aim to spread its activities in the country to make aware of the “Krishna consciousness”, therefore, any society registered in a particular state could not claim itself to be “independent” entity.