NEW DELHI, INDIA, December 15, 2006: (HPI note: This dispute does not involve the BAPS branch of the Lord Swaminarayan sampradaya.) Thanks to television, religious leaders have taken their discourses on spiritual life to the living rooms of people. But recently it was their turn to get a discourse from the Supreme Court. The case before the court was an offshoot of the litigation between two leading followers of Swaminarayan, Ajendraprasadji and Swami Keshavprakashdasji, and originated from a suit filed by the latter before the Bhavnagar civil judge in 2002. The suit sought a declaration from the civil court that Pande, having ceased to be the Acharya of Vadtal Gaddi, and his supporters are not entitled to any privilege or right in respect of the Vadtal Gaddi at Vadtal, Gadhada and Junagadh, as well as within any of the trust property and that they have no right to declare their successor as acharya of the gaddi.
Justices A. R. Lakshamanan and Altamas Kabir dismissed the petition filed by Pande, deplored the litigious attitude that has crept into religious sects and exhorted the members devote more time to the propagation of their gurus’ teachings. “If the time, energy and money was spent for carrying on the wishes of the founder of the institution, things would have reached very great heights,” the justices said.