The four-year libel ordeal of British Sikh journalist Hardeep Singh took a significant turn today, when a court ordered that Indian claimant Baba Jeet Singh must pay £250,000 in security before an appeal begins in the case. Jeet Singh is suing over several claims made about him by Hardeep Singh in UK-based newspaper The Sikh Times. Last year, Mr Justice Eady had ruled that the secular court could not rule on matters of religious doctrine

Today’s ruling came after Jeet Singh’s UK lawyers, Ford & Warren, informed the court that they had not received instruction from the self-proclaimed holy man on the conduct of the appeal. The solicitors requested they no longer be listed on the court record as acting for Jeet Singh.

The appeal is scheduled to be heard on 28 February. But it now seems unlikely that hearing will go ahead, considering the holy man is nowhere to be found, and hence would seem unlikely to lodge £250,000 in the court within a fortnight, as ordered.