A Delhi court on July 1 sentenced Narmada Bachao Andolan activist Medha Patkar to fivemonths imprisonment in a defamation case. The case was filed in 2001 by VK Saxena, who is now the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi. At the time, however, Saxena was heading the Ahmedabad-based nongovernmental organisation National Council for Civil Liberties.
The court also directed her to pay ₹10 lakhs as compensation to LG for the harm to his reputation. The sentence has been suspended till August 1 in order to allow Patkar to file an appeal. The case pertains to a press release shared by Patkar in November 2000. The court had observed in May this year that calling Saxena a “coward” and alleging his involvement in hawala transactions had also been crafted to incite negative perceptions about him.
The court also said that Patkar’s age and ailments do not absolve her of the “serious” offence as Saxena experienced “profound damage to his reputation, trustworthiness, and social standing”.
Patkar and Saxena have been locked in a legal tussle since 2000 after she filed a suit against him for publishing advertisements against her and the Narmada Bachao Andolan. The Delhi LG had also filed two cases against Patkar in 2001 for making derogatory remarks against him on a TV channel and issuing a defamatory press statement.
