A court in Delhi on Thursday acquitted Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena in a defamation case filed by social activist Medha Patkar about 25 years ago, ruling that she failed to prove the allegations against him.

Judicial Magistrate First Class Raghav Sharma passed the order. Earlier, in March 2025, the court had dismissed Patkar’s request to examine more witnesses, saying the move was aimed at delaying the trial and was not genuinely required.

The legal dispute between the two began in 2000, when Patkar filed a defamation case against Saxena over advertisements published against her and the Narmada Bachao Andolan.

At that time, Saxena was the head of an Ahmedabad-based NGO, the Council for Civil Liberties. In 2001, he also filed two defamation cases against Patkar, accusing her of making derogatory remarks about him on a television show and through a press statement.