Supreme Court dismisses plea against Medha as frivolous

By IANS

New Delhi : Medha Patkar, convener of the Narmada Bachao Andolan and social activist, won a legal battle Tuesday as the Supreme Court dismissed as "frivolous" a petition seeking a probe into alleged misuse of foreign funds by her.


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A bench of Justices C.K. Thakkar and Altamas Kabir dismissed the petition filed by the Ahmedabad-based National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), terming it as "frivolous" and "devoid of evidence" to prove the allegation.

It also imposed a symbolic fine of Rs.5,000 on the petitioner.

Patkar has been spearheading an agitation against the Sardar Sarovar dam project on the Narmada river in Gujarat and other mega dam projects, fighting for the rights of the affected people.

In recent times, she has been leading protest movements against land acquisition for industrial projects.

The petitioner had alleged that Patkar had been accepting foreign contribution for undertaking social work, but she had been "misusing the funds for anti-state, anti-people and anti-development" activities.

Seeking a probe by some independent agency like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the petitioner had alleged that over 200 activists associated with Patkar were facing criminal cases in various courts across the country for instigating people against developmental works.

The petition added that she was working on behalf of some unknown foreign power to derail India's development and her agitations against various developmental projects amounted to anti-national activities.

The bench, however, scoffed at the petitioner saying that it had not been able to give even a single proof of these wide-ranging allegations.

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