Medha Patkar flays SC notice to Arundhati Roy

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 30. The Narmada Bachao Andolan activist, Ms. Medha Patkar, has criticised the Supreme Court for its judgment issuing notice to Ms. Arundhati Roy to show cause as to why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against her for certain portions of her affidavit filed in the court.

In a statement, she said ``the latest judgment of the Supreme Court in the contempt case against Ms. Arundhati Roy, Mr. Prashant Bhushan and myself exposes the faulty and flawed judicial process, as per our claim throughout''.

``The petitioner advocates, whose petition is said to be illegal and technically flawed and hence should not have been registered, must be punished, as the judges had assertively said, during the hearing itself,'' she said.

She was of the view that while the petition itself had been dismissed, issuing notice to Ms. Arundhati Roy (while acquitting her, a representative of People's Movement and Mr. Prashant Bhushan), was a matter of concern.

Reacting to the judgment, social activist, Mr. Baba Amte said the Supreme Court's order against Ms. Arundhati Roy ``will have an exciting effect on the national mood in democracy. This order is morally a bit unfair''.

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