SURREY’S Lakshmi Narayan Temple’s election is being held on Sunday (October 5).

Challenging the incumbent slate is the one led by Amrit Lal Arora, who has served as president three times in the past.

There appears to be widespread dissatisfaction with the current management whose actions have led to unnecessary bitterness and strife.

For example, at the AGM held by the present management on February 5, 2012, the life membership of more than 400 members of the Society was cancelled. Some members of the executive committee, including Narinder Singla, Chair of the Council, Kidar Joshi, Secretary of the Council, and Karuna Joshi, Vice President, were removed. These three members each have over 25 years of experience serving the temple and have devoted a great deal of time and money to the Society. Karuna Joshi was also one of the original seven guarantors who personally guaranteed the loan for the construction of the temple in 2000.

After having exhausted all democratic procedures, the petitioners were forced to go to the courts in order to restore over 400 life members, using their personal funds to finance the costs. On February 12, 2014 the courts agreed with the petitioners and reinstated the life membership of these members.

A defamation case filed by Satish Kumar, Mahesh Gupta and Parshotam Goel against Karuna Joshi was dismissed by the court on June 13, 2014. The result of this was the temple was forced to pay $20,000 in Mrs. Joshi’s legal fees in addition to the legal fees already spent by the Society.

On July 24, 2014 the Supreme Court of BC rejected 279 new members made by the current management, due to lack of documentary evidence of their membership. According to the Arora slate, the temple has spent over $100,000 on questionable litigation. They say those funds were donations by the public and should have been used to improve the Society.