Overview
- Judicial Magistrate Raghav Sharma at Saket Courts held the complainant failed to prove defamation beyond reasonable doubt under Section 500 IPC.
- The court deemed the CD inadmissible without the mandatory Section 65B certificate and noted neither the original footage nor the recording device was produced.
- The brief clip played on television was found insufficient to establish the content of the alleged remarks without the full, unedited recording or context.
- Testimony shifted on whether Medha Patkar appeared live or via prerecorded video, and the court concluded she was not a panellist on the programme.
- The complaint concerned alleged statements about NCCL’s role in Sardar Sarovar Project contracts on an India TV show in April 2006, separate from Patkar’s 2001 defamation conviction upheld by the Supreme Court in 2025 with a modified sentence to probation.