Patkar vs Delhi LG: HC tells city court to consider new witness plea after May 20

Delhi HC has directed a city court to defer proceedings in Medha Patkar's defamation case against LG VK Saxena until after May 20.

New Delhi

Patkar and Saxena have been locked in a legal tussle since 2000. (Representative photo/HT Archive)

The Delhi high court on Wednesday directed a city court to defer the proceedings in a defamation case filed by Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) activist Medha Patkar against Delhi lieutenant governor (LG) VK Saxena.

The defamation case, filed in 2000, stemmed from an advertisement published by Saxena in a newspaper against her and the NBA.

A bench of justice Shailender Kaur directed the trial court to list the defamation case after May 20, when the high court is to next hear the matter. The trial court was to hear Patkar’s plea to examine a new witness in the case later this month. “In view of the above, the trial court is directed to give a date beyond the date given by this court (May 20). The application is disposed of,” the court said in the order.

The court issued the direction after Patkar’s counsel urged the high court to stay the trial court proceedings, asserting that the next date before the trial court was April 19 and continuation of the proceedings would render her petition in the high court infructuous.

The application was filed in Patkar’s petition against the city court’s March 18 order, refusing to permit her to examine new witnesses in the case. In the order, the city court rejected the request noting that the proceedings were pending for 24 years, and permitting parties to introduce new witnesses at a belated stage would result in the trial becoming never-ending. The court said Patkar had already examined all the witnesses listed initially at the time of filing the complaint, and thus, the judicial proceedings could not be held hostage to such tactics.

On March 27, the high court issued notice on Patkar’s petition.

Patkar and Saxena have been locked in a legal tussle since 2000.

Saxena had also filed a defamation suit against her, stemming from a press release issued by Patkar on November 24, 2000, titled “True Face of Patriot.” In the release, Patkar alleged that Saxena, who was then the president of the non-profit, National Council of Civil Liberties, had given a cheque to the NBA, but it bounced.

On April 2, sessions judge Vishal Singh upheld metropolitan magistrate Raghav Sharma’s May 2024 order convicting Patkar in the 2001 criminal defamation case filed by Saxena. On April 8, the city court released Patkar on probation, observing that the NBA leader was a person of repute with no history of conviction.