Delhi court hands Medha Patkar 5-month jail term, Rs 10 lakh fine

New Delhi, July 1 (IANS) A Delhi court on Monday sentenced activist Medha Patkar, the leader of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), to five months of simple imprisonment in a criminal defamation case initiated against her by V.K. Saxena in 2001.

Saxena currently serves as the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi.

Announcing the sentence, Metropolitan Magistrate Raghav Sharma of the Saket Court also ordered Patkar to pay Rs 10 lakh as compensation to Saxena for the harm caused to his reputation.

Advocates Gajinder Kumar, Kiran Jai, Chandra Shekhar, Drishti, and Somya Arya appeared for Saxena in the court.

Gajinder Kumar told IANS that a request was made to the court to allocate the compensation amount to the Delhi Legal Services Authority (DLSA).

Patkar was found guilty by the court on May 24 of criminal defamation under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code.

Saxena had filed the case against Patkar in 2001 when he was the Chief of the National Council for Civil Liberties, an Ahmedabad-based NGO.

During the last hearing, the parties concluded their arguments in the matter of sentencing. Saxena, the complainant, had submitted written arguments stressing the necessity of imposing the maximum sentence on Patkar. The submission cited several critical points to support his call for stringent punishment.

Firstly, the ‘criminal history’ and ‘antecedents’ of Patkar were brought to the court’s attention, showcasing a persistent defiance of the law that is a “characteristic of the accused”.