Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar.
| Photo Credit: Nagara Gopal
A Delhi court on Wednesday (April 23, 2025) issued a non-bailable warrant against Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar for failing to comply with its order to submit probation bonds and deposit ₹1 lakh fine in a 24-year-old defamation case filed by Delhi Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena.
Additional sessions judge Vishal Singh of Saket Court, who held the 70-year-old guilty in the past but also ordered her release on probation of good conduct on April 8, observed that the intention of convict is apparent that she is deliberately violating the court order.
“…she is avoiding to appear before the court and also avoiding to accept the terms of sentence passed against her. There is no order of suspension of sentence passed by this court on April 8, 2025. The court is left with no option than to enforce the production of Ms. Patkar through coercive order,” the court noted while issuing a non-bailable warrant against Ms. Patkar.
The next date of hearing is on May 3.
Speaking on the application filed on behalf of Ms. Patkar for adjournment of the case in view of pendency of her criminal revision petition in the High Court, the court stated that the same has no substance.
Also read | Delhi court dismisses Medha Patkar’s plea against conviction in Delhi L-G’s defamation case
“There is no direction in the order of the High Court that Ms. Patkar is not required to comply with order on sentence dated April 8, 2025 passed by this court. The present application is frivolous and mischievous and is only calculated to hoodwink the court. The present application is, therefore, dismissed,” it added.
Ms. Patkar and Mr. Saxena, who then headed an Ahmedabad-based NGO named ‘Council for Civil Liberties’, have been locked in a legal tussle since 2000, when she filed the present suit against him for publishing advertisements against her and the andolan.
The Delhi L-G too filed two cases against Ms. Patkar in 2001 for allegedly making derogatory remarks against him on a TV channel and for issuing a defamatory press statement.
A Delhi court sentenced Ms. Patkar to five months’ simple imprisonment in one of these cases on July 1, 2024.
Published – April 23, 2025 09:13 pm IST
