Abkar Singh Rai v Jaskaran Singh Bholowasia and Another
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | HH Judge Richard Parkes QC |
| Judgment Date | 16 February 2015 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [2015] EWHC J0216-2 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Administrative Court) |
| Date | 16 February 2015 |
| Docket Number | Claim No. HQ13 D04240 |
[2015] EWHC J0216-2
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
HH Judge Richard Parkes QC
Claim No. HQ13 D04240
Tina Kumar, instructed by Sahota Solicitors, for the Claimant
The First Defendant represented himself and the Second Defendant
–27 January 2015; 16 February 2015
INTRODUCTION
In this libel action, the claimant is Mr Akbar Singh Rai, a man of 61 and a practising adherent of the Sikh religion, who is married with three children and six grandchildren. He came to the UK in 1966 from the Punjab, and since arriving here has been a member of the congregation of the Sikh temple, or gurdwara, in Southall.
The defendants are Mr Jaskaran Bholowasia, a man of 54, and Pardes Weekly (UK) Ltd, which appears to be a company limited by guarantee. Its only director is Mr Bholowasia's wife, and it is the publisher of a newspaper which, as I understood it, is distributed free to shops and other outlets, I presume primarily in the Southall area. According to Mr Bholowasia, who edits the newspaper, some 8000 copies are distributed, but its readership is approximately ten times that. There is — or was at the relevant time — also an online edition, but no figures were available for the readership of that edition. The newspaper is printed in three sections — English, Hindi and Punjabi. Mr Bholowasia told me that each section generally contains the same material. That is clearly not always the case, as is apparent from the articles complained of in this action, one of which (the first) seems to have been published only in English, while later articles appeared in Punjabi and not English.
Mr Bholowasia represented himself and the second defendant at trial. He has been represented by solicitors during most of the proceedings, and was represented on 15 January when, through his solicitor, he applied for the adjournment of the trial on medical grounds and also on the basis that he wished to put in further evidence, for which he needed time. I dismissed the application for a number of reasons, one of which was that there was no reason to suppose that his medical condition was likely to improve if an adjournment was granted, and that it appeared that his condition could be accommodated if he was given frequent breaks as required. In the event, every request by Mr Bholowasia for a break or for an early adjournment of the day's proceedings was immediately granted, which inevitably meant that the trial overran its 3–5 day estimate. Although his movements appeared to a degree constrained, he was attended every day by two helpers and appeared both physically and intellectually capable of conducting his defence and of robustly challenging the claimants' witnesses. I wish to pay tribute to his unfailing politeness, moderation and courtesy in his conduct of the defence.
The backdrop of this trial has been the Sikh gurdwara, or temple, in Southall, or to give it its proper name, the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha. The gurdwara has at least three separate premises, two temples (at Park Avenue and Havelock Road) and a school at Norwood Hall. It is run by an elected committee, assisted by many volunteers who give their time and energies to the common good; and it also has a number of paid staff. Many thousands of people will attend the gurdwara every week, contributing very large sums of money by way of donations and offerings. It is the handling and counting of those offerings that have been at the centre of this trial.
THE PUBLICATIONS COMPLAINED OF
Article 1
The first article was published on 11 May 2013, apparently only in English. It reads as follows:
BROTHER-IN-LAW OF SRI GURU SINGH SABHA SOUTHALL'S PRESIDENT FOUND RED-HANDED STEALING GOLAK'S MONEY
• Serious assault on brave Navpreet Singh and life threats given to him & his family
• Majority of committee members trying to cover up the matter — CCTV off
Southall (Pardes Bureau): With great disappointment we have to report that those chosen devoted people on whom we repose our trust and confidence as gatekeepers of our faith have today deceived us with their insatiable thirst for greed and ravenousness. They have chosen to become poachers while we thought them are to be gatekeepers of our places of worship. When the congregation puts trust in people and hands over the keys of the Gurdwara and the same trusted people fill their own pockets with the Golak money, then what worse could we ever expect in life? Today we are facing a crisis of deceit from people whom we trusted not only with our devotion but also with God's money.
Whilst this has been going on for a long time but last week when Gurdwara donation money box (Golak) was being counted than Navpreet Singh, an employee appointed by the current committee, saw this he could not ignore it. This Gursikh took courage and held Onkar Singh's (brother—in-law of Sri Guru Singh Sabha Southall's president) wrist while putting money in his pocket and handed him over to Bahadur Singh Keila (Acting Treasurer whose wife is the Treasurer of the Sabha). To hide the fact from other people over there Bahadur Singh took Onkar Singh to the office on the first floor and got the money out of Onkar's pocket. After this Onkar Singh disappeared from there but when some honest people in the committee raised this matter then the keys were taken from Onkar Singh and since then he is hardly seen around.
According to the information received Onkar Singh did not let the matter end here, he conspired with his brother-in-law and others and came up with a plan and in accordance with this plan sent four thugs to teach Navpreet Singh a lesson. Three of these thugs had covered their faces except for a tall young man. These four thugs waited outside 11 Beaconsfield Road and as soon as Navpreet Singh came out from his residence at about 4:45 am to go to join his duties at Park Avenue Gurdwara they attacked him causing severe injuries to his head, arm and legs. Ambulance and police had to be called. Soon after Dr Parvinder Singh Garcha, the Sabha's General Secretary with a number of his confidants. They followed the ambulance and reached Ealing Hospital.
At the hospital Dr Garcha took used advantage of being a doctor, impressed upon the nurses and brought Navpreet Singh with him before he could have received full treatment. He was threatened by various people that he would lose his life and even told him that they would do that even in India. After these threats Navpreet whereabouts became unknown. When "Pardes Weekly" received a heart touching letter from a friend of Navpreet Singh's friend, "Pardes Weekly" immediately contacted Met Police Commissioner to ensure Navpreet Singh's safety and security. Police informed "Pardes Weekly" that they have two reports and are in contact with Navpreet Singh. The thugs have threatened Navpreet Singh so much that he is too scared to fully brief the police about his own as well as his family's safety. Ealing Police Spokeswoman said that "We can confirm police were called by London Ambulance Service at approximately 0510 hours on Saturday 27 April to reports of an assault in Southall, UB1. The victim, a 26 year old man, walking along Park Avenue, when he was set upon by around for unknown of Asian males. He was treated at the scene for non-life-threatening injuries. He was taken to a West London hospital and has since been discharged. There have been no arrests and enquiries continue." Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101.
When "Pardes Weekly" contacted Himmat Singh Sohi, the Sabha's President, to make enquiries he stated that there is no evidence and the CCTV was also off. It is worth observation and very obvious that when everything from Gurdwara keys to Golak keys (money box) and even from CCTV footages to offenders themselves — are hand in gloves with each other — then could we expect for any form of evidence to emerge?
When Bahadur Singh was contacted about this, he made an excuse stating he was very busy so we should contact Dr Garcha, the General Secretary.
It is not surprising that Himmat Singh Sohi's brother-in-law Onkar Singh was caught stealing red-handed but amazingly surprised to note that so—called volunteers are shamelessly trying to cover up the matter.
"Pardes Weekly" also contacted the Trustees and they said that whilst they have received information about this but they can only comment after making enquiries. You must remember that "Pardes Weekly" is the only paper which fearlessly reports thuggery and dishonesty at Gurdwaras to safeguard the Gurdwara interests and will continue to do so.
Article 1 is illustrated with three photographs. One is that of HS Sohi; one is of Dr Garcha; and the other is a photograph of the claimant, captioned 'Thief: Onkar Singh'.
The claimant was wrongly named as Onkar Singh throughout the article. His true name is Abkar Singh Rai. It is pleaded, and admitted in the professionally pleaded Defence, that Article 1 was understood to refer to the claimant, given his photograph and the fact that the claimant is (as 'Onkar Singh' was said to be) the brother-in-law of the President of the gurwara, Mr HS Sohi. It is also pleaded, although not admitted, that the claimant was identified by a large but unquantifiable number of readers as the person referred to, and that three particular individuals did so — Tajinderpal Singh Johal, Harjit Singh Rai, and Daljit Singh Hayer. All three gave unchallenged evidence that they read the article and identified the claimant as the person referred to. I have no doubt that he will indeed have been identified by very many readers as the person erroneously referred to as Onkar Singh.
The pleaded natural and ordinary meanings of Article 1 (Particulars of Claim, para 6) are that the claimant was one of the worst kind of...
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