The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday stayed the investigation against Art of Living Foundation founder and spiritual teacher Ravi Shankar in connection with a case pertaining to alleged land encroachment in Bengaluru, reported Bar and Bench.

Art of Living is a non-profit organisation that was founded in 1981 and promotes yoga and meditation.

The stay will remain in force until the next hearing on January 21, according to Live Law.

The case is linked to a public interest litigation filed in 2023, which alleged large-scale encroachment of government land in Kaggalipura village in Bengaluru South Taluk, Bar and Bench reported.

Ravi Shankar was named as one of the respondents in the PIL. However, he has denied owning any land in the area and claimed he had been impleaded in the petition for ulterior motives.

On Tuesday, Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the interim order after stating that prima facie, there were no allegations against Ravi Shankar. However, he clarified that the proceedings were not being terminated, but only kept in abeyance.

“Without any allegations, the petitioner cannot be drawn into the web of crime, unless the learned special public prosecutor would place on record something to indicate that the petitioner is directly involved in certain acts, on the next date of hearing,” the judge was quoted as saying.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Ravi Shankar seeking that the first information report registered against him by the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force in September be quashed.

The High Court had, in the same month, disposed of the public interest litigation alleging land grab and directed the state to take action against any encroachers.

In his petition, Ravi Shankar has said that his name did not appear in the list of alleged encroachers in a memo filed by the state in the now-quashed proceedings. He also pointed out that he had not been named in proceedings initiated by a Land Grabbing Court in 2024.

Despite this, a suo moto FIR was registered on September 19 under the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, naming Ravi Shankar among those accused of encroachment, Ravi Shankar told the court.