Judgment for California Hindu Textbook Controversy

As of September 1 2006, the HAF case has been resolved. The court has ruled in favor of retaining the textbooks while also noting that the approval process adopted by the board was flawed. HAF has launched a circular confirming the decision by the courts and expressing a certain measure of satisfaction at the recognition of the illegality of the proceedings. The brief published by HAF reports that the judge ruled in favor of retaining the edits on the grounds that he did not wish to disrupt the process of disseminating the revised editions at this stage. The legal team of HAF has posted an assessment of the result.

Mihir Meghani, President of the Hindu American Foundation, described the judgment as a "mixed victory". He says:

"This ruling now forces the California Board of Education to comply with the law — to have a fair and open public process to benefit all California students."

as well as:

"The (foundation) is disappointed that ... (the judge) has not ordered the textbooks on hand to be modified to be more accurate ... and a flawed and illegal procedure leads to flawed textbooks"

Shalini Gara, a member of the Friends of South Asia Organization, which opposed the lawsuit, also claimed victory Friday evening.

"The judge has upheld that the texts will stay as they are, and that is good news for us because we thought they were historically accurate and we were bothered that the (Hindu American Foundation) wanted less importance to be given to negative aspects of Hinduism."

The CAPEEM lawsuit is still ongoing as of this date.