“One of Britain’s most senior judges said yesterday that libel courts must not become places where religious and doctrinal differences are hammered out.
Mr Justice Eady made his comments while summing up his reasons for suspending a defamation case brought by an Indian ‘holy man’ against a British journalist.
The dispute centred around an article published by Hardeep Singh in the Sikh Times in August 2007 entitled: ‘Cult divides Sikh congregation in High Wycombe’. Mr Singh, a freelance journalist and a practicing Sikh, was investigating the links between a North Indian religious organisation and three gurdwaras (Sikh temples) in Britain.
At the time the article was published, followers of the Nirmala Kutia Johal, a Sikh sect based in the Punjab, were divided over the accession of Sant Baba Jeet Singh, who had become their leader in 2002 following the death of the group’s previous guru.
Mr Singh’s article described Nirmala Kutia Johal as a ‘cult’ and said that disagreements over the accession of the group’s new guru had spilled out into the open among supporters in High Wycombe. Baba Jeet Singh, an Indian national who has never travelled to the UK, issued libel proceedings in the British courts against both Mr Singh and the Sikh Times, which later went bust.
Baba Jeet Singh claimed that Hardeep Singh’s article defamed his character by describing him as a leader of a cult and an impostor who had disturbed the peace in the Sikh community of High Wycombe, and had promoted blasphemy and the sexual exploitation and abuse of women.”
Read more at The Independent (thanks, Tammy)
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