Medha Patkar defamation case: Delhi Court reserves order on plea to introduce new witness

Patkar filed the case against Saxena when he headed an NGO in Gujarat for allegedly publishing a defamatory advertisement

A court on Thursday reserved for March 18 its order on a plea by Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar to examine an additional witness in a defamation case filed by her in 2000 against Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena.

Patkar filed the case against Saxena when he headed an NGO in Gujarat for allegedly publishing a defamatory advertisement.

"Put up for orders on March 18," judicial magistrate Raghav Sharma said.
Patkat moved an application on February 17 seeking the court's permission to examine an additional witness, Nandita Narain, saying she was "relevant to the facts in the present matter".

Saxena's counsel Gajinder Kumar opposed the plea, saying it had been filed belatedly after 24 years for delaying the judicial proceedings and defeating the ends of justice.

Kumar said the case filed by Patkar on December 15, 2000, had been pending at the stage of complainant's evidence since 2011.

"The complainant (Patkar) has already examined her witnesses and they all stood cross-examined by now. The complainant, after observing the unsustainability and lacunae in the witnesses already examined and cross-examined till now, has decided to further introduce a new witness," Kumar argued.

Patkar and Saxena have been locked in a legal tussle since 2000 after she filed the present suit against him for publishing advertisements against her and the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA).

Saxena, who then headed an Ahmedabad-based NGO named 'Council for Civil Liberties', also filed two cases against Patkar in 2001 for allegedly making derogatory remarks against him on a TV channel and for issuing a defamatory press statement.

In one of the cases filed by Saxena, a Delhi court on July 1 last year sentenced Patkar to five months' simple imprisonment.

It had earlier observed that her statements calling Saxena a "coward" and alleging his involvement in hawala transactions were not only defamatory per se, but also crafted to incite negative perceptions about him.

The sentence was later suspended after Patkar filed an appeal.

At present, the arguments against Patkar's appeal have been completed by Saxena's counsel.

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