New Delhi:
For social activist Medha Patkar, facing a five -month imprisonment, a Delhi court on Tuesday released a Delhi court on “probation of good conduct” in a defamation case filed by Delhi LG VK Saxena, when he led an NGO in Gujarat.
However, the court imposed a precondition to deposit Rs 1 lakh on 70 -year -old Ms. Patkar.
Probation is a method of non-institutional treatment of criminals and a conditional suspension of punishment, in which criminals are released on the bond of good behavior instead of being sent to jail.
Hearing the appeal filed by Ms. Patkar by Ms. Patkar in the case filed in 2000, Judge Vishal Singh said, “After the principle of proportionality of the punishment, it has been observed that the sentence should be distinguished for gravity of crime.” In the current case, the court said, the crime was not such that imprisonment sentence was warrant.
He said, “There is an old woman guilty, no prior punishment has been accused against her, and there is no reason that the benefit of release on probation should be denied.”
Therefore, the court “amended” a magisterial court order for a five -month simple imprisonment on 1 July 2024.
The court said, “On depositing the compensation amount, the guilty or the appellaters will recite the Medha and present a probation bond of Rs 25,000 with a fixed amount of the same amount for an operative period of one year from the date of presenting the probation bond.”
LG Saxena’s advocates Gajinder Kumar and Kiran Jai said that Ms. Patkar deliberately discredit her customer with a prefabricated mind, and was entitled to a strict punishment.
The court said that it was proved that Ms. Patkar made a wrong and malicious statement against LG Saxena and published it via a press note, it is intended to know or to know that it would harm her reputation and respect.
Condemning his act, it said, “Medha Patkar, being a person of fame, should know the value of one’s reputation and how defamation can result in loss of the victim’s face and public-respect. An insensitive approach to the misuse of the right to others and the right to free speech should be fulfilled with criminal approval.” After amending the sentence, the judge reduced the amount of fine on the Narmada Bachao Andolan leader from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 lakh, saying that the fine was inconsistent to the gravity of the offense.
The court recently upheld the order of the Magistrate Court of the sentence.
When the proceedings started at around 11 am, Ms. Patkar’s lawyer argued for her through video-conferencing.
The court allowed the petition, after which the advocate challenged the order on the sentence.
Requesting his release on probation of good conduct, the lawyer said that Ms. Patkar, a famous social worker, was suffering from various ages related diseases.
LG Saxena filed a case against LG Saxena on November 24, 2000 against Ms. Patkar for his infamous press release as the President of the National Council of Civil Liberty.
On May 24, last year, a magisterial court noticed that Ms. Patkar’s statements were called LG Saxena and his participation in Havildar transactions was not only slander from copy, but was also designed to incite negative perceptions about her.
Furthermore, it is alleged that the complainant was “mortgaging” their resources for the people of Gujarat and their resources, there was a direct attack on their integrity and public service.
The arguments of the sentence were completed on May 30, after which the decision on the quantity of the sentence was reserved on 7 June.
On 1 July, the court sentenced him to a five -month simple imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10 lakh, after which Ms. Patkar filed an appeal against the order of sentence and sentence in a session court.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is published by a syndicated feed.)
