Court rejects Medha Patkar's plea for new witness

A Delhi court has rejected activist Medha Patkar's request to introduce a new witness in her long-standing defamation case against Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena. The case has been pending since 2000, when Patkar accused Saxena of publishing defamatory advertisements while he led an NGO in Gujarat. Judicial magistrate Raghav Sharma expressed concern that allowing new witnesses could delay the judicial process further. He noted that Patkar had already examined her initial list of witnesses during the trial, which has lasted over 24 years. The judge questioned the timing of the new witness, suggesting that if they were important, Patkar would have identified them earlier in the proceedings. The court highlighted that the absence of mention regarding the new witness throughout the trial raised doubts about the legitimacy of the request. Patkar did not provide any explanation for this delay. The judge warned that such requests could set a bad precedent, potentially causing trials to drag on indefinitely. Patkar filed her application to examine the new witness, Nandita Narain, earlier this year. Saxena's lawyer argued that the request was intended to delay the case. The legal disagreements between Patkar and Saxena date back to 2000, and both have filed several cases against each other in the years since. In one instance last July, a court sentenced Patkar to five months of simple imprisonment.