In May 2025, the Supreme Court of India issued a long-awaited judgment in the decades-long dispute between ISKCON Mumbai—the society legally founded and registered by Srila Prabhupada in 1971—and the breakaway Bengaluru group led by Madhu Pandit Dasa. The case, which originated in 2001, concerned who legally controls the Bangalore temple, a property originally established as a branch of ISKCON India. While the Supreme Court’s ruling sided with the Bangalore breakaway group, it dealt only with civil control of the Bengaluru campus and did not address or endorse the theological concept of ritvik initiation. At the time, ISKCON expressed its disappointment in the outcome, it remained committed to pursuingall available legal remedies.
While acknowledging the court’s decision, ISKCON leaders cautioned that the judgment did not alter Srila Prabhupada’s clearly expressed intention that all Indian temples function under the single ISKCON society registered in Mumbai. They also reiterated that the GBC’s long-standing 1990 resolution rejecting the ritvik theory—as incompatible with the disciplic succession taught by Srila Prabhupada—remains fully in force.
When the Bengaluru leadership approached the GBC after the ruling with a proposal for affiliation, it was conditioned on rescinding that resolution, a precondition the GBC unanimously rejected after two special meetings convened to consider the matter.
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/indias-supreme-court-sets-new-hearing-in-iskcon-bengaluru-dispute-leaders-urge-global-prayers/
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