New Delhi, Sep 4 (PTI) Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena on Wednesday told a Delhi court that Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar filed a “false” and “ante-dated” affidavit, and sought dismissal of her appeal against the conviction in a defamation case.
Saxena, in his reply to Patkar’s appeal, said, “Such manner of filing of an appeal i.e., without signatures of the accused or appellant (Patkar) and supported with the ante-dated false affidavit is not only an act of contempt of this court and perjury rather it is a smart strategy on the part of the appellant to disown any or entire facts and records as per her convenience.” The reply alleged that it had been Patkar’s “past practice to mislead the courts” and that she tried to shift the burden on her advocates after being caught, by pleading “ignorance and inadvertent errors”.
Additional Sessions Judge Vishal Singh had on July 29 suspended Patkar’s sentence in the defamation case filed by Saxena 23 years ago when he headed an NGO in Gujarat and sought his reply.
On July 1, a magisterial court had sentenced Patkar to five months of simple imprisonment, besides imposing a fine of Rs 10 lakh.
On Wednesday, advocates Gajinder Kumar and Kiran Jai, counsel for Saxena, objected to Patkar’s appeal saying it was not maintainable and was liable to be dismissed as Patkar did not sign it.
Kumar said the appeal dated July 24 carried only the signature of Patkar’s counsel.
Besides, she had filed a “false affidavit” which was “ante-dated” or signed and attested at Madhya Pradesh on July 17, the date on which the appeal did not exist, the advocate said, adding because of these reasons, there was “gross suspicion” about the “veracity and truthfulness” of the appeal’s contents.
“The present appeal cannot be deemed to have been filed on July 27 and cannot be considered to be a pending appeal so that the appellant (Patkar) was not eligible to obtain the benefit of order dated July 29 of this court vide which this court suspended the operation of the impugned order of sentence,” he said.
Patkar, who appeared through video conference, said the appeal was prepared at her instructions by her advocates and that she had the final draft of the appeal with her when she swore the affidavit dated July 17.
She had e-filed the appeal on July 24 and then filed it physically before the court three days later, Patkar said.
Passing a brief order, the court said, “In order to avoid the possibility and confusion about knowledge of appellant regarding contents of appeal petition actually filed in the court and accompanying affidavit dated July 17, the court deems it fit, at this stage, to require the appellant to send the e-copy of appeal affirmed by her as correct by way of e-mail from her personal e-mail account to official e-mail account of this court within seven days.” It said, “The issue of validity/genuineness of the present appeal petition is kept pending, subject to legal arguments.” The court posted the matter on October 18 for the arguments on the appeal.
Earlier on May 24, a court had convicted Patkar observing that her statements calling Saxena a “coward” and alleging his involvement in hawala transactions were not only defamatory per se but also crafted to incite negative perceptions about him.
Patkar and Saxena have been locked in a legal tussle since 2000 after she filed a suit against him for publishing advertisements against her and the 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. PTI MNR MNR KSS KSS
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