Delhi court issues non-bailable warrant against activist Medha Patkar in VK Saxena defamation case
A Delhi court on Wednesday issued a non-bailable warrant against activist and Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar in a 24-year-old defamation case filed by Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, reported Live Law.
The case was filed in 2001, when Saxena was heading the Ahmedabad-based non-governmental organisation National Council for Civil Liberties.
Saxena alleged that Patkar had defamed him in a press note titled 'True face of patriot', which the activist had issued on November 25, 2000.
On May 24, Patkar was convicted in the case. She was found guilty of criminal defamation under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code and was liable to serve two years' jail time, pay a fine, or both.
Additional Sessions Judge Vishal Singh granted Patkar one year's probation in the case on April 8, noting that the offence she had committed was not grave enough to warrant imprisonment, reported The Indian Express.
Patkar was expected to appear before the court on Wednesday, furnish probation bonds and deposit a fine of Rs 1 lakh.
As the activist did not appear in court or comply with other orders, Singh said that she was deliberately violating the directions, reported Live Law.
The case has been listed for May 3.
The case was filed in an Ahmedabad court and transferred to the chief metropolitan magistrate's court in Delhi in 2003. Patkar pleaded not guilty to the charges in 2013.
The judgement passed on May 24 had said that Patkar's press note was a direct attack on Saxena's personal character and loyalty to the nation.
The court also observed that Patkar had accused Saxena of 'mortgaging the people of Gujarat and their resources to foreign interests' and held the allegation to be a 'direct attack' on his integrity and public service.
'Such allegations are particularly grave in the public sphere, where patriotism is highly valued, and questioning someone's courage and national loyalty can cause irreversible damage to their public image and social standing,' the court had said.
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