Medha Patkar, the leader of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, had filed a defamation case against Saxena for allegedly publishing a defamatory advertisement. At that time, Saxena was the head of a Gujarat-based NGO.
New Delhi, March 27– The Delhi High Court has issued a notice to Lieutenant Governor (LG) V K Saxena regarding a plea filed by activist Medha Patkar. She has requested permission to examine a new witness in a defamation case she filed against Saxena in the year 2000.
Medha Patkar, the leader of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, had filed a defamation case against Saxena for allegedly publishing a defamatory advertisement. At that time, Saxena was the head of a Gujarat-based NGO.
Justice Shalinder Kaur of the Delhi High Court has now sought a response from Saxena on Patkar’s plea. She approached the High Court after a trial court rejected her request on March 18.
During the hearing, Patkar’s lawyer urged the court to put a stay on the trial court’s proceedings. The trial court is currently in the process of recording Saxena’s statement in the case. However, the Delhi High Court did not pass any stay order and instead scheduled the next hearing for May 20.
The trial court had dismissed Patkar’s plea to examine an additional witness, calling it an attempt to delay the case. The court stated that the judicial process cannot be “held hostage to such tactics.” It further noted that the case had already been pending for 24 years, and all the witnesses listed in the original complaint had already been examined.
The trial court added that “if parties were permitted to introduce new witnesses arbitrarily at a belated stage, trials would become never-ending.”
On February 17, 2024, Patkar had filed an application before the trial court to introduce an additional witness, Nandita Narain.
She argued that Narain’s testimony was “relevant to the facts in the present matter.”
Saxena’s counsel opposed Patkar’s request, claiming that it was filed after 24 years only to delay the proceedings. He argued that such a move “defeats the ends of justice.”
Patkar and Saxena have been involved in a long-running legal dispute. She had filed a defamation case against Saxena in 2000 for publishing alleged defamatory advertisements against her and the Narmada Bachao Andolan.
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In response, Saxena, who was then heading the Ahmedabad-based Council for Civil Liberties, also filed two defamation cases against Patkar in 2001. These cases were related to her alleged derogatory remarks about him on a TV channel and a defamatory press statement she had issued.
In one of the defamation cases filed by Saxena, a Delhi court sentenced Patkar to five months’ simple imprisonment on July 1, 2024.
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