Medha Patkar withdraws plea against conviction in VK Saxena defamation case from Delhi High Court

Social activist Medha Patkar on Friday withdrew her plea before the Delhi High Court against the sessions court and trial court orders that had convicted her for defaming Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena. .Patkar's counsel sought permission to withdraw the plea with liberty to file a fresh petition, which was allowed by the High Court. "This is an application seeking withdrawal. Counsel for the petitioner seeks to withdraw with liberty to file afresh. The petition is dismissed as withdrawn with liberty as prayed," Justice Shalinder Kaur said..The case against Patkar was filed by VK Saxena two decades ago in 2001, when he was the President of an organisation called National Council of Civil Liberties.In 2000, the organisation led by Saxena had published an advertisement against Patkar's Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), a 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 a cheque to Lok Samiti for the 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 added.The reporting of the press note led Saxena to file a defamation suit against Patkar before a court in Ahmedabad in 2001. 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.Patkar, on her part, denied having issued any press note or sending any press note or e-mail to anyone, including rediff.com, which had published the same.The case was transferred to Delhi in 2003 on orders of the Supreme Court..In 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. On appeal, a sessions court in Delhi said that Patkar need not go to jail as the offence was not very grave. However, it upheld her conviction for defamation and ordered her to pay a reduced compensation amount of ₹1 lakh to Saxena as punishment. Patkar proceeded to file a criminal revision petition before the High Court, challenging her conviction in the defamation case, which has been withdrawn today with liberty to file a fresh petition. .Notably, Patkar was arrested today after the Delhi sessions court on April 23 issued a non-bailable warrant against Patkar for deliberately violating the sessions court's April 8 order on her sentence (compensation to be paid to Saxena) and avoiding court hearings after being convicted. At the time, the sessions court had warned that if on the next date of hearing, Patkar did not comply with the order on sentence, then it would be constrained to alter its order on sentence..Meanwhile, the trial in the defamation case filed over the same matter by Patkar against Saxena, is still pending before a trial court. Earlier this month, the Delhi High Court directed the trial court to defer final hearings in the matter after Patkar filed a petition against the trial court's decision to dismiss her application to examine additional witnesses. The High Court is slated to hear this matter next on May 20. .[Read live proceedings]