NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has stayed the High Court order that SNDP Yogam is a public charity trust. The action was taken on a petition filed by SNDP Yogam and General Secretary Vellapally Natesan challenging the High Court order.

The bench comprising Justices MM Sundaresh and Arvind Kumar ordered the stay after prima facie accepting the arguments of Yogam and Vellapally Natesan. Advocates V Giri and Roy Abraham appeared. The Supreme Court decided to hear the petition in detail. The court ordered notices to be sent to about 15 opposing parties, including Raghunatha Panicker. The plea will be heard again on September 3.

The opposing parties had approached the Ernakulam District Court demanding that a special scheme be formed for the administration of SNDP Yogam and the office-bearers be removed. In this petition, the Ernakulam District Court ordered that SNDP Yogam is a Public Charity Trust. The district court also observed that SNDP Yogam is the successor organization of Aruvippuram Kshetra Yogam, a public trust. This order was upheld by the High Court. Yogam and the General Secretary approached the Supreme Court against this.

Public Limited Company

The position of Yogam and General Secretary is that SNDP Yogam is not a Public Trust but a Public Limited Company. The suit plea will not stand. Even if the plea is considered, the Ernakulam District Court has no jurisdiction, only the Kollam District Court has jurisdiction. The district court ruled that SNDP Yogam is the successor organization of Aruvippuram Kshetra Yogam without any evidence or document. No such argument was raised by the opposite parties in the suit petition. In the petition filed in the Supreme Court, Yogam pointed out that the property of Aruvipuram temple was given to the Sivagiri Dharmasangham Trust as a gift of choice by Sree Narayanaguru.