A COURT in London has settled a five-year succession dispute of a Hindu faith organisation which has a strong presence in the UK, US, India, Canada and Australia.
The Yogi Divine Society (YDS), which has its UK headquarters in Harrow, north London, was established by His Holiness Hariprasad Swamiji, who died in July 2021, without publicly naming who would succeed him.
Two saints sought claim to lead the organisation – Pujya Prem Swaroop Swami, 80, (known as Member A in court documents) and Pujya Prabodh Swami, 73.
The high court in London heard that three years before his death on October 5, 2018, Hariprasad Swami wrote a letter submitting his resignation as president of YDS India, and that Prem Swami wrote another indicating his agreement to assume that role.
However, this was not publicised within the organisation, which the court said was “entirely understandable”, as any “indication that Hariprasad Swami’s health was failing would have been extremely unwelcome news to the faithful”.
At a Diwali event in 2021, months after the death of Hariprasad Swamiji, trustees who backed Prabodh Swami sought to amend the society’s constitution in order across India, the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia and South Africa. The Yogi Divine Society owns the charity’s properties, reporting income of £1.62 million in 2024 and £680,000 last year. to abolish the controlling powers of ‘Member A’ as well as to ensure the charity’s work could continue without dispute.
High court judge Simon Gleeson said: “These trustees [supporting Prabodh Swami] were not rogue, bad-faith, or selfinterested individuals; however, they breached the principles of good governance, transparency, and good faith. They were honest people motivated by a higher purpose. Their motive was devotion to their Swami, but in their zeal, they crossed the boundaries of transparency and ethics. Devotees have no doubt that there is a successor, but the issue for them was identifying who that successor is.”
In his ruling dated September 30, the court declared all constitutional changes made during that Diwali meeting illegal and void, ruling that Prem Swami will remain as ‘Member A’ of the UK charity. The court’s decision also restored Prem Swami’s final veto power over any major decisions made by the trustees of the UK charity.
The judge noted that “There is no doubt that the YDS was a force for good in society, sponsoring education and creating a framework for social support amongst its members. My assessment of all of the witnesses that I saw was that they were sincerely engaged in trying to improve what they perceived as the moral character of the adherents of the sect, and to do good work in their community.”
The judge added, “However, my point in this context is that I do not believe that any of the witnesses that I heard from were engaged in anything other than an attempt to do right as they saw it for YDS UK and, indeed, for YDS worldwide.”
Supporters of Prabodh Swami who brought the claim included Satish Jamnadas Chatwani, P Gnanjivandasji Sadhu and Rajendraprasad Natvarbhai Patel.
The defendants were Chirag Mehta, Jatin Shah, Rekha Patel, Nayan Tank, Vinay Chauhan, Sureshbhai Patel, Jayesh Patel, Yogi Divine Society UK Limited, and the attorney general.
The hearing was held in July this year.
Founded in 1974 by HH Hariprasad Swamiji, the Yogi Divine Society currently has 500 centres across India, the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia and South Africa.
The Yogi Divine Society owns the charity’s properties, reporting income of £1.62 million in 2024 and £680,000 last year.
