Delhi court on Monday sentenced activist Medha Patkar to five months imprisonment in the defamation case lodged against her by Delhi Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena. She was also imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh by Metropolitan Magistrate Raghav Sharma.
The 23-year-old defamation case was filed against her when Saxena headed an NGO in Gujarat.
The court ruled a simple sentence considering the evidence and in fact that the case was over two decades old.
The court suspended the sentence for one month to enable Patkar to file an appeal against the order.
"Considering the facts...damages, age and ailment (of the accused), I am not inclined to give excessive punishment," said the judge while rejecting Patkar's plea to release her on probation.
The offence entails a maximum punishment of up to two years or a fine or both.
Earlier in May, the court had observed that Patkar’s ‘coward’ remark against Saxena and alleging his involvement in hawala transactions were not only defamatory but also crafted to incite negative perceptions about him.
The court had observed that the remarks against him had caused potential damage to his reputation.
Also, the accusation that the complainant was "mortgaging" the people of Gujarat and their resources to foreign interests was a direct attack on his integrity and public service, it had said.
The legal tussle between Patkar and Saxena began in 2000 after she filed a suit against him for publishing advertisements against her and the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA).
Saxena, who then headed an Ahmedabad-based NGO named 'Council for Civil Liberties', had also filed two cases against Patkar in 2001 for making derogatory remarks against him on a TV channel and issuing a defamatory press statement.
(With PTI inputs)
