The founder of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, Medha Patkar, was found guilty in a criminal defamation action brought by Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena of Delhi. Patkar may be subject to a fine, a two-year jail sentence, or both.
A Delhi court was hearing the lawsuit, which had been filed in 2006. Raghav Sharma, the Metropolitan Magistrate, issued the conviction order.
The legal dispute between Patkar and Saxena began in 2000, when the lieutenant governor headed the National Council for Civil Liberties, an NGO with its headquarters in Ahmedabad. Due to his publication of advertising disparaging her and the Narmada Bachao Andolan, the activist had filed a lawsuit against him.
Additionally, Saxena had filed two lawsuits against the activists for releasing a “defamatory” news release and for making “derogatory” comments about him on a TV channel in 2006.
40,000 homes may be impacted by the Sardar Sarovar Dam project in Gujarat, according to the Narmada Bachao Andolan, which made its initial claims in 2017. It has planned large-scale demonstrations, threatening to force the families from their potentially inundated houses.
Since Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime minister of the time, lay the project’s foundation stone in 1961, it has been mired in controversy.
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Activist Medha Patkar found guilty in defamation case by Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena
