Delhi High Court orders Medha Patkar's release in VK Saxena defamation case

The Delhi High Court on Friday ordered social activist Medha Patkar's release hours after the Delhi Police arrested her for not complying with a trial court order in the defamation case filed against her by Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena. .Justice Shalinder Kaur passed the order after Patkar's counsel pointed out that if the probation bond is furnished as directed by the trial court, it would mean that Patkar has accepted her sentence, and her revision plea before the High Court will become infructuous. Justice Kaur, therefore, passed an interim order releasing Patkar on bail subject to furnishing a bail bond of ₹25,000.Patkar was produced before the Additional Sessions Judge Vipin Kharb of the Saket Court. When the High Court order was brought to his notice, judge Kharb accepted the bond and ordered that Patkar be released.The High Court will hear Patkar's case on May 20. .Last year, a trial court had found Patkar guilty of defaming Saxena in 2000 and sentenced her to five months' imprisonment and a ₹10 lakh fine.On revision, a Delhi sessions court upheld Patkar's conviction for defamation. However, the court added that Patkar need not face jail time. It allowed her release, provided that she furnished probation bonds and paid a reduced fine of ₹1 lakh to Saxena. This order was passed on April 8..On April 23, the sessions court found that Patkar was deliberately violating the April 8 order on her sentence and avoiding court hearings after being convicted. It proceeded to issue a non-bailable warrant against her and also warned that it may reconsider its decision to reduce her earlier sentence if she fails to comply with the April 8 sentencing order.Patkar had filed a revision plea before the High Court earlier, but withdrew it later on technical grounds. The fresh plea then came up for hearing later in the day when the High Court proceeded to grant relief to Patkar..The case against Patkar was filed by VK Saxena 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 the 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 reporting of the press note prompted 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..Patkar too had filed a defamation case against Saxena over the same matter. The trial in this case is still pending.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..Medha Patkar was represented by Senior Advocate Sanjay Parikh, Abhimanue Shrestha and Kritika. Advocate Gajinder Kumar, Kiran Jai, Chandra Shekhar, Kamal Bhati and Karan Murari Sah appeared for VK Saxena. .[Read Orders]