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A court in Delhi has cleared Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena of defamation charges stemming from a case that has lingered for nearly twenty years. The ruling was delivered on Thursday, as reported by a local news outlet.

Judicial Magistrate First Class Raghav Sharma from the Saket courts determined that the complainant, activist Medha Patkar, did not substantiate her allegations against Saxena.

The origins of the case trace back to November 2000, when an advertisement titled “True face of Ms Medha Patkar and her Narmada Bachao Andolan” appeared in The Indian Express. This advertisement was published by the National Council for Civil Liberties, which Saxena led at that time.

The organization was in favor of the Sardar Sarovar Dam project in Gujarat, a project that Patkar's Narmada Bachao Andolan opposed vehemently.

In response to the advertisement, Patkar issued a press release and subsequently filed a criminal defamation suit against Saxena, claiming the advertisement was damaging to her reputation.

In a counteraction, Saxena filed his own defamation case against Patkar in 2001, accusing her of making disparaging remarks about him in her press release.

Initially, Patkar was found guilty in the trial court, and her conviction was later upheld by the Supreme Court.

However, on January 24, a separate ruling from a Delhi court acquitted Patkar in a defamation case brought by Saxena, with Judge Raghav Sharma stating that Saxena had not proven that Patkar made defamatory comments about him during a television interview in April 2006.

Following the recent verdict, the office of the Delhi Lieutenant Governor hailed the acquittal as a significant judicial triumph in a case that has been ongoing since 2000.