Britain’s first Hindu state school has relaxed its strict vegetarian-only admissions policy after protests from the community were reported in The Times.

The Krishna-Avanti school in Harrow, expected to be vastly oversubscribed when it opens to the first annual intake of 30 pupils in September, was accused of ruling out most of the estimated 15,000 Hindu children living in the borough because of its definition of who counted as a practising Hindu.

The school has now decided to devolve the responsibility of deciding who is and is not a practising Hindu to local temples, a move welcomed by the Hindu Council which had criticised the original policy.

The document outlining the school’s admissions policy defined practising Hindus as those who follow a version of Hinduism requiring deity worship and prayer every day, either in the temple or at home.

Candidates would also have had to show that they did weekly temple-related charity work, took part every fortnight in temple programmes, accepted and put into practice the teachings of the Vedic scriptures and abstained from meat, fish, eggs, alcohol and smoking.

Nitsh Gor, director of I-Foundation, the Hindu charity that is sponsoring the new school, told The Times that wide consultation took place before the draft admissions policy was published to ensure that the school’s ethos would reflct the tenets and spiritual values of Hinduism. The charity had tried to ensure that all temples, from all branches of Hinduism, agreed with the definition of a practising Hindu in the admissions policy.

He continued: “Nevertheless, as you reported, there has still been some criticism of the policy as too strict and exclusive.

“As the intention of the school’s sponsors is to create a school open to all across the community, we have therefore decided to devolve responsibility for defining a practising Hindu to local temples, whatever branch of Hinduism they represent.

“This will give to the authorities at each individual temple the power to determine for themselves whether an individual is practising, in line with the values and practices of their particular branch of Hinduism.”

Anil Bhanot, General Secretary of the Hindu Council, said: “The Hindu faith has a long and commendable tradition of diversity and the admissions policy for the Krishna-Avanti school reflects this. This school is a significant venture for the UK Hindu community.”