Narmada Bachao Andolan activist Medha Patkar on Tuesday deposited in a Delhi court costs of Rs 9,000 which was imposed on her in cross-cases of defamation lodged against her and the head of an Ahmedabad-based NGO.
Patkar's counsel handed over the cash amount of Rs 9,000 to the advocate of V K Saxena, the President of NGO National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), before Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Wason. The court had on April 6 imposed costs of Rs 15,000 on Patkar for not appearing before it in three defamation cases filed by NBA activist Patkar and Saxena who are involved in a legal tussle for the last 13 years.
However, the amount was reduced to Rs 9,000 from 15,000 after Patkar had pleaded that she is a social worker and "does not have any income from any source and she survives on the financial aid given by people who sympathise with her cause."
The court had on January 10 advised the two litigants to to settle their differences and withdraw their defamation cases against each other. Patkar had filed two defamation cases against Saxena who too had filed a defamation case against her.
She had filed the suit for publication of an article 'True Face of Medha Patkar and her NBA' in 2000 allegedly at the behest of Saxena against whom the court has already framed charges. The case was shifted from Ahmedabad to Delhi by the Supreme Court on Patkar's plea.
The court had earlier framed charges under section 500 (defamation) of the IPC against both Patkar and Saxena in the separate cases filed by them against each other. Patkar and Saxena have been locked in criminal cases of defamation against each other since 2000 after she filed a suit against him for advertisements published against her and NBA.
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