Punjab and Haryana High Court sets aside order on yoga guru’s properties in Gurugram

Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 4
Three decades after Swami Dhirendra Brahmachari died in a plane crash, a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that an order passed by its Bench hearing contempt of court petitions – directing the State of Haryana to take over the properties left behind by him – was prima facie “beyond scope and ambit of the jurisdiction”.
In its order passed on May 7, the contempt Bench had observed that the late yoga guru was a “sanyasi” and had publicly declared that he had renounced the world. There could not be any legal heir to a person who has renounced worldly life. As such, the property left behind by such a person, or the establishment created by them, was considered to be without a title-holder after death. “Accordingly, in normal course, the entire properties of Swami Dhirendra Brahmachari and the society established by him are supposed to go to the State by way of escheat”.
The contempt Bench on May 27 then directed the State of Haryana to take over the land. The orders were passed on a petition alleging contempt of order dated December 16, 2016, passed in a civil suit by a Gurugram court, whereby certain persons were held to be “not the proper management of the society and despite that, they are selling the land belonging to the society”.
The land in question—a vast 24 acres in Silokhera—was owned by Dhirendra Brahmachari, the founder of Aparna Ashram and a trusted yoga instructor to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. After his death in the plane crash in June 1994, a dispute over the property emerged among certain individuals.
The appeal before the Division Bench of Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Justice Sudeepti Sharma against the contempt Bench order was argued by, among others, senior counsel Puneet Bali and Aashish Chopra and filed through advocates Viren Sibal and Satyam Sharda.
The Bench made it clear that the petitions filed before the contempt Bench in the matter were “gross abuse of the process of court and were required to be declared as such at the threshold”. No reference was made by the civil court to the high court regarding prima facie contempt or intentional disobedience of its orders. On the face of it, the filing of the contempt petition was completely misconstituted and should have been dismissed at the outset as not maintainable.
Allowing the appeals, the Division Bench quashed and set aside the impugned orders. “Moreover, the contempt petitions are dismissed on the ground that they are completely misconstituted, but with an exemplary cost comprised in a sum of Rs 1 lakh each to be forthwith deposited by the petitioners who laid the apposite contempt petitions,” the Judges asserted.

Dispute over 24 acres
The land in question — a vast 24 acres in Silokhera — was owned by Dhirendra Brahmachari, the founder of Aparna Ashram and a trusted yoga instructor to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. After his death in the plane crash in June 1994, a dispute over the property emerged among certain individuals