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NEW DELHI, Wednesday (Reuters) India's highest court on Wednesday found award-winning novelist Arundhati Roy guilty of contempt of court over a campaign to halt the building of a controversial dam and sentenced her to a day in jail.

"We have no doubt that she has committed criminal contempt," the two-member Supreme Court bench, Justices G.B. Pattanaik and Justice R.P. Seti, said in their ruling. "We are not impressed by her arguments."

The charge stemmed from an affidavit filed by the Booker Prize-winning author, 40, against a contempt-of-court case filed by five lawyers against her last year following a protest over construction of the dam on the Narmada River in western India.

The Supreme Court dismissed that contempt case but it said the affidavit filed by Roy in response to the proceedings amounted to contempt of court. Roy was also given a 2,000 rupees ($41.08) fine.

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