New Delhi, April 25 – The Delhi High Court on Friday granted permission to social activist Medha Patkar to withdraw her petition challenging the order upholding her conviction in a defamation case filed by Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor V. K. Saxena. The case, which dates back over two decades, was initiated by Saxena when he served as the head of an NGO in Gujarat.
Patkar’s counsel had requested the court to allow withdrawal of the existing petition with the liberty to file a fresh one. Justice Shalinder Kaur, considering the arguments presented, permitted the withdrawal and dismissed the petition as withdrawn, stating that it was being done in accordance with legal provisions.
As per agency report, the 70-year-old Narmada Bachao Andolan leader had earlier challenged the session court’s order of April 2, which upheld the magistrate court’s decision to convict her in the defamation case. Following this, Patkar had been directed to appear personally on April 8 for arguments and sentencing.
On April 8, the session court placed Patkar on a bond of good behavior, imposing a condition of depositing a fine of one lakh rupees. Probation, in such cases, serves as a method of conditional suspension of sentence without sending the convict to jail, allowing release on a bond of good conduct.
However, after Patkar failed to comply with the probation conditions, a non-bailable warrant was issued against her. She was subsequently arrested and produced before the session court on Friday, where the judge orally ordered her release upon submitting the bond and payment of the fine, based on her lawyer’s assurance.
Earlier, on July 1, 2024, the magistrate court had found Patkar guilty under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (defamation) and sentenced her to five months of simple imprisonment along with a fine of ten lakh rupees. Saxena had filed the defamation case on November 24, 2000, accusing Patkar of issuing a defamatory press release against him while he was serving as the President of the National Council of Civil Liberties.
On May 24, 2024, the magistrate court observed that Patkar’s statements, including labeling Saxena as a "coward" and alleging his involvement in hawala transactions, were defamatory and crafted to provoke negative perceptions about him. The court noted that accusing Saxena of mortgaging Gujarat’s resources to foreign interests constituted a direct attack on his integrity and public service.
Subsequently, on April 2, an additional sessions judge rejected Patkar’s appeal against her conviction, ruling that the conviction was proper and that the appeal lacked merit.
