Delhi court says Medha Patkar will not be jailed for defaming Delhi LG VK Saxena

A Delhi court on Tuesday granted relief to social activist Medha Patkar ordering that she will not spend time in jail for defaming Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena. .Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Vishal Singh of Saket Courts said Patkar is a notable social activist who has received multiple awards for her work and the offence committed by her is not so grave to warrant her imprisonment. "The court decides to release her for good conduct... She is being released on a probation of one year," Judge Singh said. The Court also decided to reduce the fine of ₹10 lakh imposed on her and said she would pay a compensation to Saxena. .Earlier, the magistrate court had sentenced her to five months in jail and ₹10 lakh fine for defaming Saxena. ASJ Singh rejected Patkar's plea against her conviction but listed the case for today (April 8) for submissions on the sentence and receiving the sentence,In his April 2 order, ASJ Singh had said that it has been proved beyond reasonable doubt that Patkar published the press note carrying defamatory imputations against Saxena to harm his reputation. “The active involvement of Medha Patkar in authoring of the Press Note dated 24/11/2000 and its publication in document… is writ large on face of record. Conversely, the involvement of Medha Patkar is as hidden as an elephant behind an office table. It is only that Medha Patkar used smoke screen of virtual world of Internet to disseminate the Press Note in contention,” the Sessions court observed. It added that Patkar was rightly convicted by the trial court for the offence of defamation under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). “There is no substance in appeal so far as it impugns the judgment of conviction and it is dismissed,” the Court concluded. Patkar has approached the Delhi High Court against the order. .Saxena, who was the President of an organisation called National Council of Civil Liberties, had in 2000 published an advertisement against Patkar's Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), the movement that opposed the construction of dams over the Narmada river.The advertisement was titled ‘True face of Ms. Medha Patkar and her Narmada Bachao Andolan’.Following the publication of the advertisement, Patkar issued a press notice against Saxena. The press note titled ‘True Facts of a Patriot – Response to an Advertisement’ alleged that Saxena himself had visited Malegaon, praised Narmada Bachao Andolan and paid ₹40,000 through cheque to Lok Samiti for Narmada Bachao Andolan. It also said that the cheque, which came from Lalbhai Group, had bounced."The cheque, please note, came from Lalbhai Group. What is the connection between Lalbhai Group and VK Saxena? Who among them is more ‘Patriot’" the press note said.The reporting of the press note led Saxena to file a defamation suit against Patkar before a court in Ahmedabad in 2001. The case was transferred to Delhi in 2003 on orders of the Supreme Court..In July 2024, Patkar was held guilty in the case and the magistrate court sentenced her to five months of jail and ordered her to pay ₹10 lakh compensation to Saxena. This led to her filing an appeal before the Sessions Court.Saxena asserted that he never visited Malegaon and never praised NBA which, in his view, was working against the projects of national importance; and he did not give any cheque to Lok Samiti.He also arraigned witnesses who claimed that they had received press note on email from Patkar.Patkar denied having issued any press note or sending any press note or e-mail to anyone including rediff.com which had published the same. She also asserted that she had no connection with Narmada.org website and she had no knowledge about press note issued by NBA. She asserted that Narmada.org was not connected with her or with Narmada Bachao Andolan.The Court rejected these arguments while convicting her but decided to go lenient on punishment.