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3 hours ago
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The Supreme Court on Monday (August 11, 2025) confirmed a Delhi High Court decision upholding the conviction of Narmada Bachao Andolan leader and activist Medha Patkar in a criminal defamation case lodged against her by Vinai Kumar Saxena, the current Lieutenant General of Delhi, in 2001.
A Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and Justice N Kotiswar Singh however set aside an order directing Ms. Patkar, represented by senior advocate Sanjay Parikh and advocate Abhimanue Shreshta, to pay ₹1 lakh in compensation. The apex court also modified a probation order imposed on her and directed her to furnish bonds in order to exempt her from prison sentence. The Bench removed conditions of supervision of Ms. Patkar.
“Once the appellate court (High Court) applied the parameters of Section 360 Criminal Procedure Code to grant probation, it could not have applied provisions of the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958, much less the requirement for supervision by the Probation Officer under Section 4 (3) or the grant of compensation. The only permissible condition under Section 360 was to release the petitioner (Patkar), with or without surety, and no other condition was legally tenable,” Mr. Parikh argued.
Ms. Patkar was alleged to have emailed a press note on November 24, 2000 allegedly to Dilip Gohil, a correspondent. The latter had published an article in Gujarati which Mr. Saxena claimed to be defamatory to him.
Mr. Parikh argued for setting aside the conviction, noting that the High Court had upheld the conviction despite disbelieving two crucial witnesses. The email, projected as key proof, was not certified as admissible as evidence under Section 65B of the Evidence Act.
However, the apex court stood firm by its decision to not intervene in the conviction.
The High Court had upheld the conviction of Ms. Patkar on July 29. Mr. Saxena had been heading the Ahmedabad-based NGO National Council for Civil Liberties at the time of the defamation complaint.
English (US) ·