Medha Patkar served with fresh court warrant

A Delhi court on Thursday issued a warrant seeking production of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) activist Medha Patkar who failed to appear before it in defamation cases filed by her and KVIC Chairman V K Saxena against each other. Metropolitan magistrate Ashok Kumar issued the warrant against Patkar after a proxy counsel appearing for her sought exemption from personal appearance on the ground that she was arrested by the Indore Police last week and sent to jail. The court fixed the matter for further hearing on September 21.

Patkar's plea was opposed by advocate Mahipal Ahluwalia, representing Saxena, President of Ahmedabad-based NGO National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), who argued that she has repeatedly remained absent for hearings.

The counsel sought a copy of the exemption application and apprised the court about the non-bailable warrant issued against Patkar on the last date of hearing and imposition of Rs 10,000 as costs on her. Patkar was also granted a final opportunity by the court to appear before it.

Earlier on, a. magistrate had on August 3 imposed Rs 10,000 as costs on Patkar for her repeated failure to appear before the court. The magistrate also cautioned Patkar that he would dismiss her complaint against Saxena if she failed to appear. The court had on June 26 also warned Patkar to be “careful in future” and had cancelled the non-bailable warrant issued against her on May 29 for her non-appearance.