On August 23, 2010, five Ashram inmates (Sraddhalu Ranade, Raman Reddy, Niranjan Naik, Sudha Sinha, S. Ramanathan) filed an affidavit at the Puducherry District Court against the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust and its five Trustees (Manoj Das Gupta, Dilip Kumar Dutta, Dilip Mehtani, R. Prabhakar, Albert Patel).
Sraddhalu Ranade, Raman Reddy and their fellow petitioners claim in their affidavit that the Trustees committed a gross breach of trust by allowing a non-believer [Peter Heehs] to reside in Sri Aurobindo’s Ashram….” Based on this premise, the petitioners conclude: “Due to the misconduct and breach of trust committed by the Trustees, the beneficiaries of the Trust have lost total confidence in the Trustees’ ability and willingness to execute the trust and its properties as per the Trust’s objects…. In the circumstances, the present Trustees have to be removed and new trustees who will protect the interest of the trust have to be appointed….” In other words, the petitioners are seeking the court’s intervention in the management of the Ashram because the Trustees have not expelled Peter Heehs (author of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo) from the Ashram. This action not only publicly challenges the integrity and authority of the Trustees, but opens the Ashram to further division and negative publicity in India and the world.
Lawsuit filed by Sraddhalu Ranade, Raman Reddy, and others against Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trustees
On August 23, 2010, five Ashram inmates (Sraddhalu Ranade, Raman Reddy, Niranjan Naik, Sudha Sinha, S. Ramanathan) filed an affidavit at the Puducherry District Court against the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust and its five Trustees (Manoj Das Gupta, Dilip Kumar Dutta, Dilip Mehtani, R. Prabhakar, Albert Patel).
Sraddhalu Ranade, Raman Reddy and their fellow petitioners claim in their affidavit that the Trustees committed a gross breach of trust by allowing a non-believer [Peter Heehs] to reside in Sri Aurobindo’s Ashram….” Based on this premise, the petitioners conclude: “Due to the misconduct and breach of trust committed by the Trustees, the beneficiaries of the Trust have lost total confidence in the Trustees’ ability and willingness to execute the trust and its properties as per the Trust’s objects…. In the circumstances, the present Trustees have to be removed and new trustees who will protect the interest of the trust have to be appointed….” In other words, the petitioners are seeking the court’s intervention in the management of the Ashram because the Trustees have not expelled Peter Heehs (author of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo) from the Ashram. This action not only publicly challenges the integrity and authority of the Trustees, but opens the Ashram to further division and negative publicity in India and the world.