Although he told everyone that he was not splitting with Vadtal, but just going to preach in the villages, his departure gave his detractors the excuse they were looking for, and Shastri Yagnapurushdas was, as Prof. Raymond Williams observes, "expelled from the fellowship by a hastily called meeting of swamis" of the Vadtal diocese. This event marked the beginning of what would become an interminable controversy over Shastri Yagnapurushdas's official status as a part of the Vadtal diocese. Shastri Yagnapurushdas's opponents had convened this meeting to transform his departure from the Vadtal mandir into an official excommunication from the Vadtal diocese. However, his supporters asserted that their order of expulsion was morally illegitimate and legally invalid. They argued that the expulsion was illegitimate as the meeting was held under the leadership of Acharya Lakshmiprasadji, who only a short time later was himself expelled when his immoral activities came to light. Moreover, they asserted that the expulsion was legally invalid since the Chief Administrator of the Vadtal diocese, Gordhanbhai Kothari, had refused to sign the order of expulsion. Without his signature, the order was simply a worthless piece of paper with no legal standing.