A Delhi court on Thursday imposed a cost of ₹10,000 on Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar for repeatedly failing to appear before it in connection with the cross-defamation cases filed by her and Khadi and Village Industries Commission chairman V.K. Saxena.
Imposing the costs, Metropolitan Magistrate Vikrant Vaid granted Ms. Patkar a last opportunity to appear before the court in the matter. “A last and final opportunity [is being] given and costs of ₹10,000 is imposed,” the Magistrate said. Earlier, Ms. Patkar’s counsel had said that she could not appear as she was on a hunger strike in a Madhya Pradesh village.
Request rejected
In June, the court had cancelled a non-bailable warrant against Ms. Patkar. It had in May issued the warrant rejecting her request for exemption from personal appearance for a day.
According to the main counsel for Ms. Patkar, V.K. Ohri, Mr. Saxena filed the case against her alleging that she had defamed him by saying that he had donated money to her trust through a cheque that was dishonoured by the bank. Mr. Saxena claimed that he had never issued any cheque in the name of her trust.
Ms. Patkar filed a counter-defamation case against Mr. Saxena alleging that he had made defamatory references vis-a-vis her in an article.
