Delhi court sentenced renowned Indian activist, Medha Patkar to five months imprisonment on Monday in a defamation case filed by the current Delhi lieutenant governor, Vinai Kumar Saxena in 2001. Patkar is the founding member of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada River Movement) started in 1985 in states including Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.
While pronouncing the sentence against Patkar, the Delhi court stated:
While the convict’s age and medical condition are factors that the court must consider, they do not absolve her of the serious nature of her offence. The unfounded accusations, such as involvement in hawala transactions and compromising the the interests of Gujarat’s people for foreign entities, were designed to ruin complainant’s public image and credibility. The complainant experienced profound damage to his reputation, trustworthiness, and social standing. These defamatory remarks led to severe personal and professional hardships, forcing the complainant to suffer through the anguish of a drawn-out legal battle for over twenty years.
During the unrest around the Sardar Sarovar dam project and Patkar’s led Narmada Bachao Andolan movement (NBA), Saxena, who was the president of an organization named National Council of Civil Liberties, issued an advertisement against the NBA in 2000. Following this, Patkar issued a press notice against Saxena allegedly accusing him of illegal financial dealings and referring to him as a “coward and not a patriot”. The case was filed in Ahmedabad court in 2001 which was later transferred to Delhi in 2003 as per the order from the Supreme Court.
The Delhi court convicted Patkar in the defamation case on May 24 under section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and was ordered to pay a compensation of INR 1,000,000 ($ 11 977,50).
The Narmada Bachao Andolan movement was started as a protest against the construction of dams across the Narmada River, involving adivasis (tribals), farmers, locals and social activists. Patkar led the struggle where she also went on a hunger strike building pressure on the World Bank, the financing agency of the dam project, to set up an independent project-review commission named Morse Commission. The reports of the commission exemplified the violation of banks’ policies regarding the environment, rehabilitation and settlement through financing the project. The World Bank finally stopped funding the project in 1993 citing social and environmental impacts which came as a major win for Patkar-led Save the Narmada River Movement.
