Delhi High Court Today (April 16) ordered trial court to delay proceedings in Medha Patkar’s defamation case. Patkar challenged denial of new witness; HC to hear her plea on May 20.
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NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court asked a trial court to delay or postpone the hearing in an old defamation case filed by well-known social activist Medha Patkar against Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena. This case goes all the way back to the year 2000.
Recently, Patkar had gone to the High Court. She was unhappy with a decision made by the lower court (a trial court) that did not allow her to bring in a new witness. This witness was not mentioned earlier in her list of witnesses, but now she wanted to present this person’s testimony in court.
ALSO READ: Delhi Court Upholds Medha Patkar’s Jail Term & Rs 10 Lakh Fine for Defaming LG VK Saxena
However, the trial court, which is a judicial magistrate first class court in Saket, was still going ahead with the case even though Patkar’s request was already being looked at by the High Court. Her lawyer, Advocate Abhimanue Shrestha, told the High Court and Justice Shalinder Kaur that if the lower court did not stop the trial for now, her case in the High Court would become useless.
He said that:
“if the trial is not stayed, the petition before the High Court will become infructuous.”
After hearing this, Justice Shalinder Kaur gave clear instructions to the trial court. She said the next hearing in the trial court should be fixed for a date after May 20, because the High Court will hear the matter on that day.
ALSO READ: Medha Patkar Won’t Be Jailed For Defaming Delhi LG VK Saxena: Saket Court
This whole legal matter started when Medha Patkar filed a defamation complaint in 2000, saying that an advertisement in a newspaper published by V K Saxena contained things that were wrong and damaging to her reputation. In 2011, Saxena told the court that he was not guilty, but the case did not move forward for many years. It only started progressing in 2018, when Medha Patkar gave her statement in court.
Later, on January 28, 2025, Patkar told the trial court that she wanted to call another person as a witness. This person’s name had not been added in the original list of witnesses. She then officially submitted a request in the form of an application to the magistrate court on February 18, 2025. But the court rejected her application on March 18, 2025.
Now, in the Delhi High Court, Medha Patkar is fighting against that March 18 order. She is asking the High Court to cancel the lower court’s rejection and allow her to bring in the new witness.
At the same time, the trial court, on March 28, had scheduled the matter for final arguments on April 19. But with the High Court hearing now set for May 20, the trial has been put on hold.
On May 20, the Delhi High Court will listen to Patkar’s plea, and Saxena is also expected to file his reply on the same date.
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