In an ongoing civil war and clash of Whales (an iconic Las Vegas term) on the future direction of the Hindu Mandir, a lawsuit has been filed against some of the current Board Members and the Executive Committee by the Hindu Society of Nevada. The debate has erupted on who and why the lawsuit is under the Hindu Society of Nevada and who pays for the high-profile law firm hired by the Hindu Society of Nevada.

As reported earlier, the internal dissent among the Board of Trustees may lead to a lawsuit by some of the Board Members. The same came to fruition last week with a lawsuit by Plaintiff Hindu Society of Nevada against Jagdish Mehta and Amaratbhai Patel as an active trustee, Nutan Parikh as an inactive trustee along with Pratik Dudhia, Somendra Mukherjee, Rakesh Patel, and Bharti Gupta all in their capacity as a general member of the Hindu Society of Nevada.

On numerous occasions, this publication has addressed the concerns to the Board of Trustees on how they failed to comply with the Mandir bylaws. No corrective action was taken, and for years, it has fallen on collective deaf ears. It was reported that the Board of Trustees lost the right to be a Board Trustee as none of the Members paid their annual dues as required by section III.2(a) of the adopted bylaws. However, in 2021, some provisions of the bylaws were changed, specifically, the elimination of the above section, which addressed the annual dues by the Trustees. 

Most of the Board Members delegated and trusted certain Board Members to work on the bylaws for the betterment of Mandir’s administration and signed off on them. When this publication published an article on blatant disregard of the bylaws, some Members of the Board initiated action against the non-compliant Trustees, which created the current chaos. 

Per the 12-page complaint filing, the Plaintiff accuses the above defendants of a tragic attempt to disrupt the affairs and a complete hostile takeover of The Hindu Society of Nevada (“Society”). The defendants are accused of forming a “Shadow Board” and are trying to wrestle the operation and financial control of the Temple away from the duly elected officers. Further, the lawsuit accuses the Shadow Board’s election denialism has been catastrophic to the Society’s democratic governance and its spiritual and cultural place in the community. The lawsuit is quoting various bylaws governing the Hindu Mandir.

Further, the complaint also focuses on the Nomination Committee for the nominations of officers. However, in the last election, this publication was told that there was no nomination committee to receive nominations from the community members who donated to the Temple. The complaint also focuses on how, on November 6, 2023, the Active Trustee and the Co-Chairman, Mr. Latpate, emailed a notice to all Trustees and announced the upcoming bi-annual election for the Executive Committee position. As per the original and amended bylaws, there is no provision for the position of Co-Chairman. At the same time, Mr. Latpate sent a notice to all Trustees extending the deadline for submitting nominations for the Executive Committee positions. This violation of the current bylaws was brought to the attention of then-Chair Jagdish Mehta.

Additionally, the complaint says the then-Executive Committee President Paresh Joshi interviewed each candidate in person. What happened to the Nomination Committee? The bylaws don’t authorize the President to interview anyone for any Executive Committee position, as that job falls on the Nomination Committee, which was never formed.

On December 15, 2023, Pratik Dudhia sent an email to Chairman Jagdish Mehta asking to null and void the recent Hindu Temple Executive Committee Election, claiming it was highly irregular and the Board of Trustees disregarded the Temple bylaws as the extension application deadline was improper and that a nominations committee should have been formed. The controversy continued, and negotiations among the Board of Trustees fell apart. However, during the upheavals, Gopi Latpate resigned and rescinded his resignation, further complicating the ongoing controversies. Since then, multiple accusations and rumors have been flying from all the interested parties. The parties forget that following the bylaws is one crucial aspect of any non-profit business’s longevity and success.

Please click here for the complete contents of the lawsuit