Perjury plea against Medha Patkar dismissed

NEW DELHI - A city court Wednesday dismissed a plea to prosecute Medha Patkar of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) for alleged perjury.

The petition filed against her alleged that she filed a fake medical certificate to get exemption from personal appearance in two criminal defamation cases against her.

Metropolitan Magistrate Munish Markan’s order said: “Arguments on perjury application heard. Documents perused and application dismissed.”

Complainant V.K. Saxena, president for National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), filed the application against Patkar who claimed that she took exemption from personal appearance on two occasions allegedly by producing a false medical certificate on March 3, 2009.

He alleged she was allegedly staging a protest at the collector’s office at Nandurbar in Maharashtra on that day.

Calling it a sponsored litigation, V.K. Ohri, counsel for Patkar, said: This is just a way of harassing Patkar as she filed a criminal defamation case in Delhi against Saxena in 2000 for publishing advertisements against her and the activities of NBA.

The court has fixed July 1 for hearing the arguments on issuance of notice in the two defamation cases filed by Saxena and Patkar against each other.

Saxena also filed a criminal defamation case against her in Ahmedabad in 2001 for accusing him of making payments through cheques to an NGO in Malegaon in Maharashtra.