By Meghak Gupta Everyone sees the Art of Living (AOL) as a “spiritual” and “charitable” organisation. But dig deeper and you find something very different.
In a 2004 land auction for 5.5 acres in Agara, Bengaluru, AOL pulled off a deception: • Their trustee, Raghunath, bid claiming to be an agriculturist. • After winning, he suddenly declared it was actually the Art of Living Trust (VVMVP) buying the land. • At the time, trusts were legally barred from purchasing agricultural land.
This isn’t a mistake. It’s a deliberate fraud to break the law!
The Supreme Court itself called it fraud, misrepresentation, and suppression of facts. Yet AOL got away with it — the Court didn’t cancel the sale. Instead, it just asked them to pay extra money. The only reason? The law that banned trusts from buying such land was repealed retrospectively.
So let’s be clear: • AOL knowingly broke the law. • They lied to authorities to grab land. • When caught, they escaped accountability through a legal technicality.
And this is the organisation people trust with donations, influence, and a “moral voice”?!
How many other land deals have they pulled off like this? How many laws bent in the name of “charity”?
Read the full case summary @ Lawchakra : https://lawchakra.in/supreme-court/art-of-living-trust-bengaluru-land-case/
FYI the Bar and Bench had published an article on this which has since been removed.
Shouldn’t we start asking whether Art of Living is less about spirituality and more about land, money, and power?
Is this the Art—- of —- Living???