Office Orders

The Auroville Dog Shelter (ADS) team was replaced without explanation via an Office Order issued on 30 August 2025. The GB and AVFO plan to build a VIP road directly through the shelter and through three established Auroville farms.

A new oversight committee (the ‘DCC’) for the AVFO ‘Donation Channeling Group’ (‘DCG’) has been announced via an Office Order. Since the ‘DCG’ was put in place by the AVFO, the number of administrative tasks that have to be fulfilled in order for units and trusts to receive their donations have greatly increased.

The Auroville Dog Shelter has warned that rabies continues to be present in the Auroville area. Due to budget constraints, it is unable to renew the 1500 dog and cat vaccinations it did last year and is also forced to halt its successful “1000-dog-in-a-year” sterilisation programme, which, it warns, will lead to an exponential increase in the number of puppies in the entire area.

Krishna Devanandan has a background as a dancer, cultural event organiser and teacher of Tai Chi. She helped organise the Auroville Film Festivals and managed the Auroville Art Service from its inception in 2012 until 2023, when the Auroville Foundation appointed new executives.

The Working Committee appointed by the Residents’ Assembly (RA-WCom) have published a legal opinion from lawyer Suchindran Bala Baskar as to the validity of the Auroville Foundation (Residence Criteria) Standing Order 2024 (AVFRC), which lays down certain criteria to be followed by the residents of Auroville [see AVToday # 426, page 2].

By Office Order dt. 20 February 2025, Dr. G. Seetharaman, Officer on Special Duty, Auroville Foundation, appointed the five members of the Admissions & Terminations Scrutinising Committee (ATSC) and the three members of the Admissions & Terminations Registry, in accordance with the Auroville Foundation (Admission and Termination of Persons in the Register of Residents) Regulations, 2023, issued by the Governing Board and published in the Gazette of India on 4 January 2024.

Judith joined Auroville in 1971. Here she talks about her journey.

On August 11, Justice N. Seshasayee of the Madras High Court pronounced judgment in a case started by an Aurovilian challenging the decision of the Officer on Special Duty of the Auroville Foundation to reconstitute as many as 14 Committees or Units of the Foundation by a unilateral Office-Order, dated 12.04.2023.

The GB appointed Working Committee (GB-WCom) informed the community that a new Residents’ Assembly Service (RAS) has been appointed through an Office Order issued by the Office of the Secretary.

The AVSST informed the community that as it did not receive any information or notice regarding the recently circulated Office Order issued by the Office of the Secretary of the Auroville Foundation, which seems to include a change of executives and team members for this service, the AVSST team will continue its work.

Confronted with many requests for various decisions of the Residents’ Assembly, the Auroville Council organized a poll to help it and the Residents’ Assembly Service determine which topics for Residents’ Assembly Decisions (RADs) the community felt to be the most important at this moment in time.

What could be the next steps? For some it is obvious. “We’ve had so many studies,” said one Aurovilian. “Mother signed the Galaxy, we had two years of discussion which ended with the Master Plan.