Shergill and others v Khaira and others [2012] EWCA Civ 983, [2012] All ER (D) 167 (Jul)
Court of Appeal, Civil Division, Mummery, Hooper and Pitchford LJJ, 17 Jul 2012
The authorities establish that the courts abstain from adjudicating on the truth, merits or sincerity of differences in religious doctrine or belief and on the correctness or accuracy of religious practice, custom or tradition.
Robert Pearce QC (instructed by Ford & Warren, Leeds) for the claimants. Mark Hill QC and JK Quirke (instructed by Seymours Solicitors LLP) for the defendants.
The parties were members of the Sikh religious community. Most either were or had been trustees of one or other of two Gurdwaras used by the community as meeting places for religious worship. The Gurdwaras were in Birmingham and High Wycombe, and they were founded in the 1980s by the First Holy Saint of the Nirmal Sikhs. The Gurdwaras were subject to trust deeds (the trust deeds). The trust deeds conferred on the First Holy Saint “or his successor” a power to remove and replace trustees.
