New Delhi: A court here on Tuesday ordered social activist Medha Patkar to be released on probation of good conduct for a period of one year in a decades-old defamation case filed by Delhi Lt Governor V.K. Saxena.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Vishal Singh of the Saket Courts modified the order of the trial court which had sentenced Patkar, the leader of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), to five months of simple imprisonment, apart from ordering her to pay Rs 10 lakh as compensation to Saxena for the harm caused to his reputation.
The appellate court ordered Patkar to be released on probation of good conduct for a period of one year, subject to prior deposit of a compensation amount of Rs 1 lakh, which will be released in favour of the complainant (Saxena).
“The convict/appellant is not immediately sentenced and has been granted the benefit of release on probation of good conduct. In the event of commission of an offence during operation of the probation period, the convict shall appear/be produced before the Court to suffer a lawful sentence for the offence for which she has been convicted in the present case,” the court said.
Further, it asked Patkar to furnish a probation bond of Rs 25,000 with one surety of like amount and asked the District Probation Officer of Saket Courts to file an initial probation report within 10 days of the filing of the probation bond.
As per the latest order, the District Probation Officer has been ordered to keep a check on the activities of Patkar and file a periodical probation/supervision report every three months.
“The convict shall also appear before the learned Trial Court every three months during consideration of the periodical supervision reports filed by the District Probation Officer, Saket Courts,” it added.
The court took record of the submission that Patkar is a well-known social activist and suffers from various age-related ailments. It opined that an insensitive approach towards others’ reputation and abuse of the right to free speech must be met with criminal sanction, adding that Patkar, being herself a person of repute, must know the value of one’s reputation and how defamation can result in loss of face and public esteem of the victim.
“The convict is an aged lady, and no prior conviction has been alleged against her. There is no reason why the benefit of release on probation be denied to her,” it stated.
Last week, the court had dismissed Patkar’s appeal challenging her conviction in the defamation case.
Last year, on July 1, Metropolitan Magistrate Raghav Sharma sentenced her to five months in jail and ordered her to pay Rs 10 lakh as compensation to Saxena. Advocate Gajinder Kumar, along with advocates Kiran Jai, Chandra Shekhar, Drishti, and Somya Arya, had argued the case for Saxena.
The defamation case dates back to 2001, when Saxena — then chief of the Ahmedabad-based NGO National Council for Civil Liberties — filed two defamation suits against Meha Patkar. One pertained to allegedly derogatory remarks she made during a television interview, while the other involved a press statement. The legal tussle arose from an earlier suit filed by Medha Patkar in 2000, accusing Saxena of publishing defamatory advertisements targeting her and the Narmada Bachao Andolan.
(IANS)
