The Delhi High Court has issued a notice to Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena, responding to activist Medha Patkar’s application to introduce a new witness in a long-standing defamation case originating from 2000. The case pertains to allegations against Saxena for defamatory advertisements published during his tenure as the head of an NGO in Gujarat.
Justice Shalinder Kaur has requested Saxena’s response following Patkar’s challenge to a March 18 trial court decision that had dismissed her request to examine the new witness. The high court has not yet issued a stay on the ongoing trial court proceedings, which are set to record Saxena’s statement soon, but has scheduled the next hearing for May 20.
The trial court, in its earlier ruling, argued against the introduction of a new witness at this advanced stage, stating that such actions could lead to endless delays in judicial processes. It noted that the case had been pending for over two decades and that all originally listed witnesses had been examined.
Patkar’s legal team argued the relevance of the additional witness, Nandita Narain, asserting her testimony was crucial to the facts of the case. However, Saxena’s counsel opposed the motion, suggesting that the late introduction of a new witness was an attempt to unduly prolong the proceedings and subvert the course of justice.
The legal battle between Patkar and Saxena has been fraught with mutual accusations and legal filings. Besides the ongoing defamation suit filed by Patkar, Saxena had also initiated two cases against her in 2001. These were based on allegations of derogatory remarks made by Patkar against him on a television broadcast and in a press statement. In a significant development, a Delhi court had sentenced Patkar to five months of simple imprisonment on July 1, 2024, in one of these cases.
