The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Election Commission to consider extending the deadline for filing objections to the deletion of names from Kerala’s draft electoral rolls following the special intensive revision, reported Live Law.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi made the suggestion citing difficulties faced by voters in accessing details of those excluded.

The bench also directed the poll body to publicly display the names of excluded voters at gram panchayat offices or other public offices in villages, and to publish the list on its official website, the legal news outlet reported.

The special intensive revision of electoral rolls is underway in 12 states and Union Territories, including Kerala. The exercise is currently in the claims and objections stage in the state.

In Kerala, the draft electoral rolls published on December 23 showed that 24 lakh names had been excluded from an electorate of 2.7 crore, or approximately 8.7%.

The voters can file claims and objections to deletions until January 22. The notice phase, which includes hearings and verification, will continue until February 14, and the final electoral rolls are scheduled to be published on February 21.

On Thursday, the petitioners told the court that while voters can object to deletions, the list of persons removed from the draft roll is not available to them, Live Law reported.

Counsel for the Election Commission submitted that the court’s earlier direction on publicly displaying draft electoral rolls had been complied with.

However, the bench said that if the list of excluded voters had not already been made public, it must be displayed at local public offices and on the commission’s website.

“Meanwhile, having regards to the difficulty being experienced by the people at large, the [Election Commission] may consider the desirability of extending the date,” Live Law quoted the bench as saying.

Counsel for the commission agreed to consider the suggestion.

The court is hearing a batch of petitions against the validity of the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls in several states, including Kerala.

One of the petitions has been filed by the Kerala government, which had not challenged the exercise but sought a postponement in view of the local body elections that were held on December 9 and December 11.

In Bihar, where the revision was completed ahead of the Assembly polls in November, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll.

Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll. Several petitioners had moved the Supreme Court against it.

Voting is underway for 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra, including the Mumbai civic body, on Thursday. The results of the elections will be declared on Friday.

Voting began at 7.30 am and will end at 5.30 pm.

As of 3.30 pm, the voter turnout in Mumbai stood at 41%, PTI reported.

Across the state, 3.4 crore voters are eligible to decide the fate of 15,931 candidates, PTI reported.

Voters in cities other than Mumbai will cast multiple votes for the first time to choose several corporators for each ward under the panel system. Electors in Mumbai will have to cast a single vote due to the traditional one-ward-one-corporator model.

Dozens of senior police officers, along with 11,938 constables and 42,703 home guards have been deployed across the state to maintain law and order, The Hindu reported. Fifty-seven companies of the State Reserve Police Force have been deployed.

The six major political parties in the fray in the municipal elections are the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress, and the two factions of the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party. The parties have entered into several different alliances across the 29 municipal corporations.

In Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad, Ajit Pawar’s faction of the NCP will contest the elections in alliance with the Sharad Pawar-led faction of the NCP.

In Mumbai, the BJP has retained its alliance with the Shiv Sena group led by Eknath Shinde, while the NCP faction headed by Ajit Pawar is contesting independently.

The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) has allied with its former rival, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, along with the NCP faction headed by Sharad Pawar. The Congress has entered into a coalition with Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi.

Nearly two weeks before polling took place, 68 candidates of the Mahayuti coalition were elected unopposed in the municipal elections. The wins had become clear after the deadline to withdraw nominations ended on January 2.

Several candidates of the Opposition alliance had withdrawn their nominations.

Of the 68 candidates who won unopposed, 44 belonged to the ruling BJP. Its ally, the Shinde Sena won 22 seats unopposed. The remaining two were won by Ajit Pawar’s NCP group. The wins themselves were not enough for the ruling alliance to clinch control of any municipal corporation.

However, the Maharashtra State Election Commission sought reports from these municipal corporations amid the Opposition’s allegations of irregularities in the filing of the poll nominations.

EVM glitches reported in Pune, officials say machines replaced

Some electronic voting machines reported glitches during the initial hours of polling in Pune but officials said that the faulty devices were replaced and voting continued without disruption, PTI reported.

Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Rohit Pawar said on social media that some of the EVMs in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad shut down at the start of polling and that a few showed time lags of up to 15 minutes.

“In some places, light was blinking after casting a vote for the third candidate, while in some cases, despite casting all four votes, the mandatory light was not blinking,” he said. “All these things are suspicious. The State Election Commission should give a clarification.”

Pune’s Additional Municipal Commissioner and poll in-charge Omprakash Divte told PTI that 15 to 20 EVMs developed snags soon after polling began. “However, substitute machines kept with sectoral election officers were immediately deployed and polling continued in those wards without any glitch,” he was quoted as saying.

As of 1.30 pm, the voter turnout in Pune was 23%, PTI reported.

High stakes in Mumbai

In the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, which is India’s richest civic body with an annual budget of over Rs 74,400 crore, more than 1 crore voters will cast their ballots to elect 227 corporators, with about 1,700 candidates in the fray, in elections being held after a four-year delay.

More than 28,000 police personnel have been deployed across Mumbai to maintain law and order.

Ahead of the Mumbai civic polls, the Thackeray cousins joined hands two decades after Raj Thackeray left the Shiv Sena to form the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

The two parties have the support of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar).

While the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) is contesting 163 seats, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena is vying for 53. The Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) is contesting 11 seats.

The BJP is contesting 137 seats in the Mumbai municipal body, while the Shinde Sena is contesting 90.

Also read:

• ‘Money and muscle’: Why Opposition workers are crying foul in Maharashtra civic polls
• Maharashtra civic polls: Use of marker pens instead of indelible ink sparks row

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the first information reports registered by the West Bengal Police against Enforcement Directorate officials in connection with the searches at the premises of political consultancy I-PAC on January 8, Bar and Bench reported.

The court also issued notice to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and several West Bengal Police officers on a petition filed by the Enforcement Directorate, alleging obstruction of the searches, Live Law reported.

The searches were conducted at the firm’s office in Kolkata’s Salt Lake area, the residence of the firm’s head Pratik Jain, and the office of a trader in the city’s Posta neighbourhood, as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering.

The Indian Political Action Committee has managed the Trinamool Congress’ election campaigns, including in the 2021 Assembly elections.

Banerjee had arrived at Jain’s home around noon while the search was underway and stayed for about 20 to 25 minutes. She then came out with a green file and claimed that the central agency’s officials were “taking away” party documents ahead of the Assembly elections.

The state is expected to head for polls in the next three to four months.

Following the raids, the Trinamool Congress and I-PAC moved the Calcutta High Court challenging the legality of the searches.

The ED also approached the High Court, alleging “illegal interference” during its search operations, but the matter was adjourned on Wednesday at the agency’s request, Bar and Bench reported.

The Enforcement Directorate’s petition in the Supreme Court was filed under Article 32 of the Constitution, which grants individuals the right to move the top court for enforcement of their fundamental rights.

On Thursday, a Supreme Court bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Vipul M Pancholi said that the alleged interference of the state in ED’s searches was a “serious issue” that needed examination.

“For furtherance of rule of law in the country, and to allow each organ to function independently, it is necessary to examine the issue so that the offenders are not allowed to be protected under the shield of the law enforcement agencies of a particular state,” Live Law quoted the bench as saying.

It added: “Larger questions are involved in the present manner, which if allowed to remain undecided, would further worsen the situation and there will be a situation of lawlessness prevailing in one or the other state.”

The court also observed that while central agencies do not have the authority to interfere with the election-related work of political parties, it must be examined whether a bona fide investigation into serious offences can be obstructed on the ground that party activities are being affected, Live Law reported.

The Enforcement Directorate has also sought a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the alleged obstruction of its functioning.

The Supreme Court has issued notice to the West Bengal government, Banerjee, the state’s Director General of Police Rajeev Kumar, Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma and Deputy Commissioner of Police (South Kolkata) Priyabatra Roy.

The respondents have been asked to file their counter-affidavits within two weeks. The matter will be heard next on February 3.

Separately, the High Court on Wednesday disposed off a petition filed by the Trinamool Congress seeking protection of confidential political data.

This came after the Enforcement Directorate told Justice Suvra Ghosh that it had not seized any documents during the searches.

Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, representing the Enforcement Directorate, had claimed that any documents or electronic devices removed from the premises were taken away by Banerjee and not by the central agency.

When Rajesh Kumar’s* visa stamping appointment was canceled on December 8, he had already landed in Delhi for what was supposed to be a two-week trip home. The software engineer, who has lived in the United States since 2016, had timed his visit around the Christmas holidays – a window that many on H-1B temporary work visas use to renew their status.

But instead of flying back to his job in California, Kumar now faces a rescheduled appointment in July 2026, seven months away.

He is one of hundreds of Indian H-1B visa holders stranded after US consulates in India abruptly postponed their appointments following the Trump administration’s implementation of new social media vetting procedures.

The Trump administration had announced the new vetting procedures on December 3, saying all H-1B applicants and their dependents seeking H-4B visas would now be subject to social media screening as part of what the US State Department called “expanded screening and vetting”.

The policy was introduced for student visas in June and has now been extended to cover skilled workers and their dependents.

Visa stamping appointments scheduled from December 15 were rescheduled to dates between March 2026 and January 2027, according to affected workers.

WORLDWIDE ALERT FOR H-1B AND H-4 VISA APPLICANTS
 
Beginning December 15, the Department of State expanded online presence reviews to ALL H-1B and H-4 applicants as part of standard visa screening. This vetting is being conducted globally for ALL applicants of ALL nationalities… pic.twitter.com/qMrMrOvqy0

— U.S. Embassy India (@USAndIndia) December 22, 2025

In emails sent to affected applicants, the State Department said appointments were being delayed “to ensure that no applicants … pose a threat to US national security or public safety”. A spokesperson said consulates were now “prioritizing thoroughly vetting each visa case above all else”.

India has long been the biggest beneficiary of the H-1B programme, accounting for 71% of visa holders, according to an April 2025 report from US Citizenship and Immigration Services. As of September, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Tata Consultancy Services and Google were the five largest sponsors of H-1B workers, USCIS data shows.

Scroll spoke to five H-1B workers affected by the postponement, all of whom requested anonymity for fear of jeopardising their immigration status. They are now applying for expedited visa stamping appointments even as they negotiate with their employers to allow them to continue working remotely from India.

One worker, employed at a tech company on the West Coast in the US, said his employer agreed to let him work from India until March. “They said we’ll assess the situation then,” he told Scroll.

Another worker said she traveled to India with her husband for visa renewals. Both had appointments scheduled for the same day and time, but only hers was rescheduled to June while her husband’s went ahead as planned.

A third worker said that the lease for his apartment in the US expires in April. “I’m not sure if the property manager would allow me to renew if I’m not in the US,” she said. “Everything is an added expense at this point.”

Thousands of horror stories from H1B holders whose stamping appointments were postponed by US Consulates in most arbitrary fashion. They are stranded for no fault of theirs. @DrSJaishankar @narendramodi @PiyushGoyal

India-US trade deal when US is targeting innocent citizens?

— Tamirabharani தாமிரபரணி (@iluvindia2014) December 21, 2025

Emily Neumann, an attorney at Reddy Neumann Brown, a Houston-based immigration firm, has at least 100 clients stuck in India. “Companies we are in touch with are trying to work with their employees to allow them to work remotely,” she said. “But there are those who don’t have that option and in these cases, the employers are trying to hold out as long as they can.”

Ana Gabriela Urizar, an attorney with Manifest Law, an immigration law firm in the United States, said workers who get laid off while stuck in India cannot return under their prior H-1B approval and would need a new employer to file a fresh petition.

While a $100,000 charge for new applications announced in September could apply in some cases, Urizar said it may be early to assume that. She added, “In many cases, the fee does not apply.”

Workers can apply for expedited appointments if they can demonstrate urgent business needs, but they are allowed only two attempts. One worker said that his requests for an expedited appointment had been rejected, leaving him with an appointment date in June.

Some large employers have tried to accommodate stranded workers. Amazon, one of the largest sponsors of H-1B workers, stated in an internal memo sent to its employees on December 17 that those stuck in India could work remotely until March 2. The note also specified a list of restrictions: workers cannot write code, make strategic decisions, negotiate contracts or interact with customers.

The cancellation of appointments are the latest in a series of restrictions on H-1B visas. In July, the State Department announced that H-1B holders would no longer be able to renew their visas remotely or in third countries requiring them to return to their home countries for processing. In September 2025, Trump signed a proclamation imposing a $100,000 fee on new H-1B applications.

The Trump administration is also close to approving a wage-based weighted lottery system for H-1B visas, which would prioritise applicants with higher salaries over the current random selection process.

*Names withheld at the request of those interviewed.

A junior doctor and a nurse have been admitted to Kolkata’s Infectious Diseases and Beliaghata General Hospital after developing early symptoms of the Nipah virus infection, the Hindustan Times quoted a state health department official as saying on Wednesday.

The Nipah virus is a “zoonotic illness” transferred from animals such as pigs and fruit bats to humans. The virus can also be caught through human-to-human transmission.

It causes fever and cold-like symptoms in patients. The infection can also cause encephalitis, which is the inflammation of the brain, and myocarditis, or the inflammation of the heart, in some cases.

The two persons had been treating a healthcare worker, who had later tested positive for the virus at the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital in Purba Bardhaman district.

The doctor and the nurse were shifted to the hospital in Kolkata on Tuesday and have been kept in isolation, an unidentified official told the newspaper. Their blood and nasopharyngeal swab samples have been sent for testing, another official was quoted as saying.

The new suspected cases came three days after two healthcare workers in the state tested positive for the infection. They remain in critical condition at a hospital in Barasat. While one of them is in coma, the other is on ventilator support, The Hindu reported.

Their infections were initially detected at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Kalyani and reconfirmed by the National Institute of Virology in Pune.

While more than 120 persons, including hospital staff, family members and ambulance drivers, who were in contact with the two healthcare workers have also been told to isolate themselves, several others are being screened for the virus, The Hindu reported.

Contact tracing is underway in North 24 Parganas, Bardhaman and Nadia districts.

The source of the outbreak has not yet been identified.

While the last outbreaks of the Nipah virus were in West Bengal in 2001 and 2007, the last reported cases of the disease in the country was in Kerala in August.

Two teenage athletes were found dead in the hostel room of a Sports Authority of India facility in Kerala’s Kollam on Thursday, PTI quoted the police as saying.

The girls were identified as Sandra, 17, from Kozhikode district, and Vyshnavi, 15, from Thiruvananthapuram, reported Mathrubhumi.

While Sandra was studying in Class 12, Vyshnavi was a Class 10 student.

The deaths came to light at around 5 am after other hostel residents noticed that the two girls were missing from training. Hostel authorities broke into the room and found the bodies, PTI quoted the police as saying.

The police said that Vyshnavi, who was living in a separate room, had spent the previous night in Sandra’s room.

The Kollam East police have launched an investigation.

The reason for the deaths is yet to be determined and no note was recovered from the room, officials said.

A National Investigation Agency court in Delhi on Wednesday convicted Kashmiri separatist leader Asiya Andrabi and two of her associates under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, PTI reported.

Andrabi, alleged to be the founder and chief of the banned all-women separatist group Dukhtaraan-e-Millat, had been arrested in April 2018 by the Jammu and Kashmir Police for allegedly planning a large-scale demonstration in Anantnag, the news agency reported. She had been sent to jail in Srinagar.

In July 2018, Andrabi and her associates, Nahida Nasreen and Fahmeeda Sofi, were arrested by the NIA from the Srinagar jail.

The central agency had registered a case under the anti-terror law against the three women for being members of a banned organisation, waging war against the state, sedition and criminal conspiracy. They were formally charged in February 2021.

Additional Sessions Judge Chander Jit Singh of the NIA court had been hearing the case.

On Wednesday, the judge found them guilty of offences under sections of the UAPA pertaining to conspiracy and membership of a terrorist organisation, PTI reported.

The court also convicted the three women under sections of the Indian Penal Code related to promoting enmity between groups, imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration, conspiracy to wage war against Government of India, criminal conspiracy and statements conducing to public mischief.

The bench will hear the arguments on their sentencing on Saturday.

Andrabi is the second separatist leader to be convicted by an NIA court after Yasin Malik since the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution in 2019, which had granted special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

A portion of a school being constructed in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul district was bulldozed by the authorities on Tuesday following rumours that it was an unauthorised madrasa, The Indian Express reported.

A resident, Abdul Naeem, had invested nearly Rs 20 lakh in borrowed money and from family savings to construct the school in Dhaba village, the newspaper reported.

Naeem was building the school for students from nursery to Class 8 because families from the village and nearby Adivasi hamlets had to send their children to institutes several kilometres away. He had filed an application with the state school education department on December 30.

However, rumours had begun to spread since last week that a madrasa was being built in the area, The Indian Express reported.

“I had decided to construct the school on my private land so that my village can progress and some people can study,” Naeem told the newspaper. “Senior officials claimed that we were doing wrong things here.”

Naeem said there was no basis to claims that a madrasa was being built there. “This is a village with only three Muslim families,” he said. “How would a madrasa even function here? And the building wasn’t even complete – no classes, no students.”

On Sunday, the panchayat issued Naeem a notice ordering him to demolish the school, claiming that he did not have the permission to build the structure. The officials at the panchayat office allegedly refused to accept his response and told him to return later.

Following protests by residents, the panchayat issued a no-objection certificate for the school on Monday, NDTV reported. The sarpanch was quoted as stating that she had not received any complaints alleging that the structure was an unauthorised madrasa.

However, on Tuesday, when Naeem and some villagers had gone to meet the district collector to discuss the matter, the administration demolished the parts of the school.

Ajit Maravi, the sub-divisional magistrate, told The Indian Express that the administration had acted on a complaint from the panchayat alleging encroachment and violation of rules.

“A verification found that part of the construction fell under encroachment,” Maravi was quoted as saying. “Only the illegal portion has been removed, not the entire building.”

He alleged that all permissions had not been obtained.

Naeem disputed the allegations. “I had the panchayat NOC,” he was quoted as saying, adding that he had applied for a school approval.

NDTV quoted Naeem as saying that he was told that the structure would be demolished as the panchayat had not issued a no-objection certificate.

“I did not know [earlier] that an NOC from the panchayat was required...” he was quoted as saying. “I am ready to pay whatever fine is imposed; that is my humble request…My only request is that the building should not be demolished.”

Two journalists associated with Telugu news channel NTV were arrested by the Telangana Police on Wednesday for broadcasting allegedly false and defamatory content about a woman Indian Administrative Service officer and a state minister in a television programme, The Hindu reported.

Those arrested were NTV input editor Donthu Ramesh and reporter Sudheer.

Ramesh was arrested at the Hyderabad airport when he was about to board a flight to Bangkok, The News Minute reported. Sudheer was arrested at his residence in the city.

Another NTV reporter, Paripurna Chari, had been detained for questioning but was later released, an unidentified officer told The Hindu.

On Thursday, the journalists were produced before a magistrate and granted bail, PTI reported. The court directed them to surrender their passports.

The arrests followed a complaint filed by Jayesh Ranjan, secretary of the Telangana IAS Officers’ Association, who alleged that content telecast by NTV on January 8 contained “completely false, fabricated and baseless” allegations against a serving woman Indian Administrative Service officer, The News Minute reported.

The complainant alleged that the TV programme had made unsubstantiated claims, used sexual innuendo and indirectly identified the officer while attempting to link her postings to an alleged personal relationship with an elected official, The News Minute reported.

While the reports did not identify the persons, state minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy on Saturday denied the allegations and said that legal action would be taken against those responsible for the “deliberately misleading” content.

Based on the complaint, a Special Investigation Team headed by Hyderabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar was formed.

The police have registered cases against NTV, T News and several other television channels, YouTube channels and social media accounts under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Information Technology Act and the Indecent Representation of Women Prohibition Act.

The charges include sexual harassment, insulting a woman’s modesty, criminal intimidation, insult with intent to provoke breach of peace and transmission of obscene material in electronic form.

The investigation team also conducted a search at the NTV office, and seized computers and hard disks, The News Minute reported.

The police said that they were investigating two cases, including a separate matter relating to the circulation of an allegedly obscene and humiliating image of Chief Minister Revanth Reddy in a WhatsApp group.

The late-night detentions sparked sharp political reactions, with Opposition parties accusing the Congress government in the state of targeting the media.

Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader KT Rama Rao condemned the arrests, comparing them to actions during the Emergency and questioned why journalists had been detained at night when the offences cited were bailable.

“It is unfortunate how Telangana DGP is hell bent on treating journalists like criminals,” Rao said on social media.

Former minister and BRS leader T Harish Rao urged the police to follow due process and asked whether it was “necessary to go to journalists’ homes in the middle of the night during the festival and make arrests”, The News Minute reported.

YSR Congress Party chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said that the police action was an attack on press freedom and democratic values.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed authorities in the national capital to immediately take over subways near government hospitals, and provide beds and tents for those waiting for treatment and their relatives camped outside to protect them from the cold, the Hindustan Times reported.

A bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia issued the directions to the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board, saying that denying shelter amounted to a violation of fundamental rights. Refuge cannot be denied on the grounds of the paucity of funds or other resources, the judges said.

The bench said that the government and its agencies were duty-bound to ensure that homeless persons, and those waiting to be treated at hospitals and their relatives, were given adequate space to take shelter, Bar and Bench reported.

The order covers areas near major government hospitals in the national capital such as All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Lady Hardinge Medical College in the national capital.

The court directed the shelter board to take over subways near these areas by Wednesday evening, and erect tents or shelters with essential amenities, the Hindustan Times reported.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the Delhi Development Authority were asked to cooperate with the shelter board, “failing which the court may take a strong view of the matter and erring officials of these agencies may be held accountable”.

The bench said that the direction applied to the Delhi Police and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation as well.

The direction was issued after the court on Monday took suo motu cognisance of a report in The Hindu that described the condition of patients and their kin staying on the streets near AIIMS due to the lack of affordable accommodation.

On Wednesday, the court was told that the counsel for the Union government, Ashish Dixit, visited shelters near AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospital in the national capital, and reported a need for at least 400 additional beds. Dixit also reported that most of the occupants were cancer patients or their attendants.

A non-profit organisation also submitted photographs of the shelter to the bench, saying that its office-bearers had visited several locations, Bar and Bench reported.

Taking into account these submissions and the arguments from the counsel for several government authorities, the bench noted that the reality on the ground appeared very different from the claims made before it.

The court said that a meeting shall be held on Friday under the chairmanship of the Principal District Judge (South District) to chalk out a short-term plan. This will be implemented from Friday itself to meet the current exigencies, it added.

The case will be heard further on Friday.

Danish shuttler Anders Antonsen on Wednesday said that he had withdrawn from the India Open Super 750 in New Delhi for the third consecutive year, because of “extreme pollution” in the capital.

Ranked third in men’s singles globally, the player said that the air pollution made Delhi an unsuitable venue for hosting a badminton tournament at this time of year.

This is the third consecutive year that the Danish badminton player has opted out of the Super 750 event.

The India Open began on Tuesday and will run until Sunday. It is being held at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.

Explaining the reason behind his decision in a series of social media posts, Antonsen shared a screenshot from Swiss-based air quality monitoring firm IQAir showing Delhi’s air quality index at 348 on Wednesday, a level categorised as “very poor”.

Air quality in the “very poor” category can cause breathing discomfort even in healthy persons.

Air quality deteriorates sharply in the winter months in Delhi, which is often ranked the world’s most polluted capital. Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, vehicular pollution, along with the lighting of firecrackers during Diwali, falling temperatures, decreased wind speeds and emissions from industries and coal-fired plants contribute to the problem.

In his social media post, Antonsen said: “Crossing my fingers that it will be better in the Summer when the World Championships will take place in Delhi.”

The World Championships are expected to be held in Delhi in August.

Antonsen’s comments came a day after fellow Danish shuttler, Mia Blichfeldt, raised concerns about health and training conditions at the ongoing tournament, The Indian Express reported.

Blichfeldt, ranked world number 20, is competing at the India Open and has reached the round of 16.

“I am happy with the court conditions but not the health conditions,” The Indian Express quoted her as saying. “The floors are dirty and there is a lot of dirt on the courts. Also, there are birds flying in the arena, there is bird poop also.”

The Badminton Association of India responded to the criticism, stating that Blichfeldt’s comments were mainly related to the training facilities and not the playing arena.

The association’s General Secretary, Sanjay Mishra, said the main playing arena had been kept clean, dirt-free and pigeon-free, and that several players had expressed satisfaction with the conditions, Firstpost reported.

“As an athlete who is more sensitive to dust and environmental factors, she was sharing a personal perspective on how conditions can sometimes impact her health,” Mishra was quoted as saying.

The lynching on December 18 of Dipu Chandra Das, a Hindu man in Bangladesh’s Mymensingh district, over allegations of blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad, put the focus on the horrors of majoritarian vigilante mob justice. Das’s killing was followed by further violence against Hindus across the border.

The killing sparked massive outrage in India among ordinary citizens, politicians, the media and even celebrities. The Indian government officially expressed its concern about the “barbaric killing”. The reactions are entirely justified. After all, if such horrendous violence has to be prevented, it must be met with visceral anger and condemnation.

But the response caused some to ask: should outrage be channeled on the lines of religion, nationality and ethnicity?

Within days of Das being killed, there were at least four lynchings in India: Mohammad Athar Hussain, a cloth vendor in Bihar; Ramnarayan Baghel, a migrant worker from Chhattisgarh in Kerala; Jewel Sheikh, a worker from West Bengal in Odisha; and Anjel Chakma, a student from Tripura in Uttarakhand. These killings did not traumatise our national consciousness as Das’s did.

Only Chakma’s death got some attention. There were no primetime news debates or condemnations from powerful ministers. In this selective outrage, a Bangladeshi player was barred from playing in the IPL cricket tournament.

India has chosen to ignore the powerful exhortation by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.

After the Bharatiya Janata Party assumed power in 2014, India saw a spurt in lynching on the basis of religion. An overwhelming number of victims were Muslim. The lynchings, among many others, of Mohammad Akhlaq, Pehlu Khan, Alimuddin Ansari, 16-year-old Junaid Khan, Ghulam Ahmed, Majlum Ansari and 12-year-old Imitiaz Khan and Rakbar Khan drew international attention. This prompted the Supreme Court to ask Parliament to consider drafting a separate law for mob lynching.

Though there is no central law, Section 103(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanahita punishes mob violence.

In contrast, the spate of lynchings since 2024 has not troubled the national imagination and has scarcely received media time. It reveals a shocking normalisation of hate against minorities. In June 2024 alone, Guddu Khan and Chand Miya Khan, Mohammed Farid, and Salman Vohra were lynched. In August 2025, 20-year-old Suleman Khan Pathan was killed by a mob, which included his close friends.

Lynching and mob violence against minorities are tools to enforce ethnic or religious hierarchy and control, to punish alleged social transgressions, to enforce segregation or are driven by the fear of those considered outsiders.

In Bangladesh, Dipu Chandra Das in Mymensingh had a factory job, which many among the mob that killed him probably coveted. Many of the lynchings in India mentioned above were carried out by cow vigilantes. But Ramnarayan Baghel was a Hindu Dalit worker from Chhattisgarh in Kerala, whom the mob, consisting of Hindus, believed was a thief and a Bangladeshi.

Similarly, Jewel Sheikh was a Bengali Muslim worker in Odisha butmob accused him of being a Bangladeshi. To the Uttarakhand mob that killed Anjel Chakma, from Tripura, he was “Chinese”.

Majoritarian mob violence is particularly brutal. Dipu Chandra Das was dragged, hung and burned in public view, all while being filmed. Ram Narayan Baghel in Kerala had more than80 injuries on his body: the doctors say that he was “beaten like an animal”. In Bihar, the mob stripped Athar Hussain to confirm that he was a Muslim, burned his flesh, beat him with rods and cut his ears with pliers.

The gravest mistake that can be made is in believing these incidents are aberrations. They are a symptom of polities under majoritarian convulsion. Dipu Chandra Das’s murder was a consequence of the process when a nation wants to conceive itself in the image of its religious majority – in this case, Muslim.

It is a vision that does not believe in a democratic compact in which every citizen is equal, irrespective of religion, a secularism that is enshrined in the Constitution that Bangladesh now wants to remove.

In India, similarly, religious nationalism and state and political display of religious identity have become central features of the polity. Cow vigilantism and allegations of so-called love jihad – the conspiracy theory held by Hindutva supporters that Muslim men are luring Hindu women into romantic relationships solely to force them to convert to Islam – stem from a deep sense of victimhood in which the majority religion believes it is being overrun by the minority.

This Christmas saw numerous attacks on Christians: Hindutva supporters disrupting prayers asserting that India is a Hindu Rashtra, vandalising Christmas celebrations in hotels, schools and malls, and even threatening poor vendors selling Santa Claus hats. In 2014, 147 incidents of violence against Christians were reported but that number reached 840 in 2024.

Majoritarian mob violence spreads terror among even those who are not attacked and creates permanent fissures out of religious animosities. Many leave their homes, like some Hindus in Bangladesh. In India too, Muslim families have left the villages where they lived for generations.

When Martin Luther King, Jr, contended that one should confront injustice everywhere, he was arguing with those who wanted to brand him an “outside agitator” for getting involved in civil rights activism beyond his home city and state.

In recent months, Indians have been more than eager to speak for Hindu minorities in other parts of the world, as they should. But many have forgotten to speak for religious minorities in India or even other Hindus when perpetrators are Hindu mobs themselves.

Mob killings are a barbaric blot on humanity in the 21st century. When we apportion our indignation on the basis of our religion, we do nothing to confront that barbarity.

Nissim Mannathukkaren is a professor at Dalhousie University, Canada. His X handle is @nmannathukkaren.

The Editors Guild of India on Wednesday expressed concern about the continued reciprocal blocking of news outlets in India and Pakistan.

The press body said that unhindered access to news, especially among neighbouring countries in South Asia, is a “prerequisite to building an atmosphere of trust and understanding between the peoples and nations of the region”.

“Untrammelled access to news, views, perspectives and information will help create an informed citizenry, aid dialogue and help usher in peace in the region,” it added.

In 2025, India and Pakistan blocked a number of each other’s news outlets following tensions between the two countries after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.

In India, at least 12 Pakistani news websites were confirmed to have been blocked between April and May, including Dawn, Pakistan’s leading English-language daily.

The Indian government also banned 16 Pakistani YouTube channels, including Dawn News, Geo News, ARY News. It said the action was taken for spreading misleading content related to the Indian Army and Kashmir.

Pakistan responded by blocking access to Indian media outlets from around May 8. At least eight Indian news websites, including India Today, Republic World, The Hindu and NDTV, were confirmed to be inaccessible. Islamabad also blocked 32 Indian news websites and 16 Indian YouTube channels.

In its statement, the Editors Guild acknowledged that there had been instances of media organisations in both countries “crossing the bounds of balanced and professional journalism”.

“There have been instances of media in both countries going overboard with misinformation, spreading fake news and inciting panic, which endangers lives and weakens democratic institutions,” it added.

The press body said that such violations do not justify blanket bans on news websites.

“While such aberrations and instances of unethical journalism need to be dealt with more conscientiously, blocking all access is not the solution,” it said. “A blanket ban does not expunge ground realities, but only serves to build a climate of fear and mistrust. Such bans also run counter to the spirit of democracy and freedom of expression.”

The Guild urged the governments of India and Pakistan to lift the restrictions and restore access to cross-border journalism.

The Calcutta High Court disposed of a petition filed by the Trinamool Congress seeking protection of confidential political data. The decision came after the Enforcement Directorate told the court that it had not seized any documents during its searches of the premises of the political consultancy firm, I-PAC, on January 8.

The central agency also claimed that any documents or electronic devices removed from the premises were taken away by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and not by the ED.

After the ED conducted searches at I-PAC’s offices in Kolkata and the residence of the firm’s head Pratik Jain, Banerjee had claimed that the central agency’s officials were “taking away” party documents ahead of the Assembly elections. The party had moved the High Court challenging the legality of the searches. On the other hand, the ED also approached the court, alleging “illegal interference” during its search operations. Read on.

India on Wednesday issued a fresh travel advisory urging its citizens to avoid travelling to Iran amid escalating anti-government protests. The country’s embassy in Tehran also asked Indian citizens in Iran to leave at the earliest.

There are approximately 10,000 Indians in Iran, including a large number of students. The advisory came amid widespread unrest in Iran over the past two weeks. Around 2,000 persons, including security personnel, have been killed during the protests, an Iranian official said. Read on.

Assamese singer Zubeen Garg was “severely intoxicated” and not wearing a life jacket when he drowned during a yacht trip in September, the Singapore Police told a coroner’s court. Assistant Superintendent of Police David Lim said Garg had refused to wear a life vest despite repeated reminders and swam away from the yacht before becoming motionless and floating face down.

Garg, a renowned Assamese singer, died on September 19 during a yacht trip in Singapore, a day before he was scheduled to perform at the North East India Festival there.

He was pulled back on board and given cardiopulmonary resuscitation before being taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy found 333 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood in his system. Police said there was no evidence of suicide, duress or coercion. Read on.

A Muslim woman who was forced across India’s border to Bangladesh in December has approached the Supreme Court challenging a Gauhati High Court order that declined to hear her plea against a foreigners’ tribunal decision declaring her a foreigner. In September 2019, the tribunal held that Aheda Khatun failed to establish a link between herself and her Indian parents and grandparents.

Khatun has said the tribunal ignored documents including voter lists showing her parents as electors, her school certificate, a village permanent residency certificate and a registered land deed gifted by her father.

On December 17, she was among 15 persons expelled under the Immigrants Expulsion from Assam Act, 1950, and is currently in Bangladesh. Read on.

If you haven’t already, sign up for our Daily Brief newsletter.

India and South Africa are both navigating one of the toughest challenges of the 21st century: shifting their electricity systems away from ageing coal-fired power stations while ensuring people still have reliable, affordable energy.

South Africa generates about 74% of its electricity from coal, one of the highest shares in the world. Electricity plants are ageing, and maintenance is overdue. The electricity sector is highly centralised and dominated by the state-owned energy provider, Eskom. These factors have led to power cuts in the past.

Coal accounts for about 70% of India’s electricity generation. However, India has managed faster improvements in electricity access and renewable energy integration.

Both countries have national grids that are not very reliable, and don’t have enough public funds to move quickly into green (renewable) energy.

We are engineering academics who research the transition to green energy. Our study identified the strengths and weaknesses in both countries’ approaches.

We found lessons that could accelerate progress in both countries. South Africa could learn from India to boost local manufacturing of renewable energy systems, and India could learn from South Africa’s transparent renewable procurement and community-benefit models.

India’s green energy push

Over the past decade, India has implemented a carefully sequenced set of energy policies that linked rural electrification with renewable energy and reforms to agriculture. New rural power lines enabled more solar projects, and cleaner farm electricity reduced pressure on the national electricity grid.

As a result, India moved from chronic electricity shortages to near-universal access to electricity, despite having a massive population and vast rural areas. About 25%-30% of India’s electricity now comes from renewable energy – enough to power 70 million to 80 million Indian homes each year.

This growth has been driven by huge solar farms, rooftop solar installations, and hybrid solar-wind projects. India has attracted billions of dollars in private-sector investment. The country has a national policy framework that makes it easier for energy companies to operate and promotes the connection of clean energy to the national grid.

India has also made tremendous progress in energy efficiency by reducing its energy consumption by around 3.5%. It aims to reduce its carbon emissions by a further 10%.

South Africa’s progress and bottlenecks

South Africa has made impressive strides in renewable energy procurement. The Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme is a competitive tender process designed to facilitate private sector investment into renewable energy that can feed into the national grid.

Private energy companies have invested R256 billion (US$17.3 billion) in renewables. But they still supply less than 10% of South Africa’s power. Further expansion is held back because the grid can’t accommodate more energy in certain areas. Slow, centralised decision-making, combined with delayed bidding processes, delays new projects.

In South Africa, remote and low-income communities still rely on costly or informal energy sources: paraffin, diesel generators, firewood, and illegal grid connections.

The transition must balance environmental goals with energy supply stability. There are 91,000 coal workers and communities who earn a living working near coal mines and coal-fired power stations.

Lessons from India

Several lessons emerge from India’s experience:

1) Instead of treating rural development, electricity grid upgrades, and buying renewable energy as three separate tasks, South Africa should manage them together so that improvements in one area benefit the other areas.

2) South Africa needs a dedicated energy-efficiency institution like India’s Bureau of Energy Efficiency. Such a body would set rules to cut energy waste. It could strengthen appliance and building standards, run national awareness campaigns on energy savings and cost reductions, and support industries through audits and best-practice guidance.

3) India’s federal system allowed states to create energy systems that suit local needs. South Africa has a central government system. It could benefit from giving provinces and local governments more power to accelerate their own renewable projects and community-level initiatives.

4.) India’s Production-Linked Incentives and Make in India policies support strong domestic solar and battery manufacturing. South Africa, by contrast, still imports most of its solar panels, inverters, and battery-storage components.

Lessons from South Africa

South Africa offers India valuable insights as well:

1.) South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme is a great global model for fair and transparent procurement. It uses clear bidding rules, has independent evaluation panels, and publicly discloses winning prices.

2.) This programme also ensures that some of the profits from renewable energy projects go to community trusts. Many trusts hold about 8%-12% of the shares in their local green energy initiatives. However, communities don’t always benefit as much as they should if their shares are financed by debt and dividends spent on repaying loans. India could adopt an improved community model that offers real benefits.

What needs to happen next

Our study found that coal will remain part of both countries’ energy systems for some time. But coal should be used sensibly. For example, coal plants must be made cleaner, and both countries should avoid new coal construction except where absolutely unavoidable.

Renewable energy, battery storage, and grid upgrades must happen. This deployment will gradually reduce dependence on coal.

India and South Africa both have ambitious climate goals and face similar pressures to develop. They can transition to cleaner energy quickly without making electricity less reliable, more expensive, or less fair. They can learn from each other through Brics (the intergovernmental organisation they belong to), the G20, and direct bilateral partnerships.

South Africa’s 2025 G20 presidency endorsed investing more quickly in renewable energy. It also advocated for working together across countries to link and improve electricity grids. But it missed an opportunity to make explicit, stronger promises to cut back on coal, oil, and gas.

Sustainable transitions are not achieved by abandoning old systems overnight. Transforming them carefully, responsibly and inclusively is the way to go.

Craig McGregor is Associate Professor in Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering and Director of the Solar Thermal Energy Research Group, Stellenbosch University.

Varun Pratap Singh is Associate Professor (Extraordinary) in the Solar Thermal Energy Research Group, Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, Stellenbosch University.

This article was first published on The Conversation.

The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday disposed of a petition filed by the Trinamool Congress seeking protection of confidential political data, reported Bar and Bench.

This came after the Enforcement Directorate told Justice Suvra Ghosh that it had not seized any documents during its searches at the premises of political consultancy firm I-PAC on January 8, Bar and Bench reported.

Appearing for the central agency, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju claimed that any documents or electronic devices removed from the premises were taken away by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and not by the ED.

The ED had conducted searches at I-PAC’s office in Kolkata’s Salt Lake area, the residence of the firm’s head Pratik Jain and the office of a trader in the city’s Posta neighbourhood on January 8 in connection with an investigation into alleged money laundering.

I-PAC, or the Indian Political Action Committee, has managed the Trinamool Congress’ election campaigns, including in the 2021 Assembly elections.

Banerjee had arrived at Jain’s home around noon while the search was underway and stayed for about 20 to 25 minutes. She then came out with a green file and claimed that the central agency’s officials were “taking away” party documents ahead of the Assembly elections.

The state is expected to head for polls in the next three to four months.

Following the raids, the Trinamool Congress and I-PAC moved the Calcutta High Court challenging the legality of the searches.

The ED also approached the court, alleging “illegal interference” during its search operations.

During the hearing on Wednesday, the High Court noted that written records of the searches showed that no documents were seized from the I-PAC office or Jain’s residence.

“In view of such submissions, nothing remains to be dealt with and the application is disposed of,” Live Law quoted the bench as saying.

The ED had also sought adjournment of its petition alleging interference by Banerjee during the searches, stating that a similar plea had been filed before the Supreme Court, Bar and Bench reported.

The High Court accepted this request.

The agency’s petition before the Supreme Court seeks an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation into Banerjee allegedly obstructing its raids and the return of documents and electronic material that the chief minister is alleged to have taken.

The West Bengal government has also approached the Supreme Court to ensure that no ex parte orders are passed in the matter without hearing it first.

The ED had said that its searches were based on a first information report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation into an alleged coal smuggling syndicate that was used to “steal and illegally excavate coal from ECL [Eastern Coalfields Limited] leasehold areas of West Bengal”.

Meanwhile, the West Bengal Police also registered first information reports against the ED based on two complaints filed by Banerjee.

Banerjee had alleged that the ED was confiscating the Trinamool Congress’ “documents and hard disks, which have details about our party candidates” for the elections.

India on Wednesday issued a fresh travel advisory urging its citizens to avoid travelling to Iran amid escalating anti-government protests. The country’s embassy in Tehran also asked Indian citizens in Iran to leave at the earliest.

In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said Indian nationals were “once again strongly advised” to avoid travel to the West Asian country until further notice.

Advisory for Indian nationals regarding travel to Iran

🔗 https://t.co/6nSHTg45Bu pic.twitter.com/JWK1xC8EQO

— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) January 14, 2026

The Indian Embassy in Tehran also advised Indian nationals in Iran, including students, pilgrims, businesspersons and tourists, to leave the country by available means of transport, including commercial flights.

“It is reiterated that all Indian citizens and PIOs [persons of Indian origin] should exercise due caution, avoid areas of protests or demonstrations, stay in contact with the Indian Embassy in Iran and monitor local media for any developments,” the embassy stated

There are approximately 10,000 Indians in Iran, including a large number of students, the Hindustan Times reported. The country is also visited each year by thousands of Shia pilgrims from several parts of India.

pic.twitter.com/5LnD6gC0tu

— India in Iran (@India_in_Iran) January 14, 2026

The advisory came amid widespread unrest in Iran over the past two weeks. Around 2,000 persons, including security personnel, have been killed during the protests, an Iranian official told Reuters on Tuesday.

The protests, which began on December 28, were initially focused on discontent about rising inflation. However, they later expanded in scope as protesters in more than 100 cities demanded an end to clerical rule.

The authorities in Iran have accused the United States and Israel of inciting the unrest.

On January 8, the government snapped internet access and telephone lines, largely cutting off the country from the outside world.

The restrictions were eased on Tuesday, AP reported. However, text messaging services were still down and internet users were only able to connect to government-approved websites locally.

One of the protesters who was arrested on January 8 has been sentenced to death.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said he was “horrified” by the violence in Iran.

“The killing of peaceful demonstrators must stop, and the labelling of protesters as ‘terrorists’ to justify violence against them is unacceptable,” Turk stated.

Turk also described reports about the possibility of a death sentence to protesters as “extremely worrying”.

A court in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal has ordered a first information report against Additional Superintendent of Police Anuj Chaudhary in connection with allegations that a man had been shot and injured during unrest in the town in November 2024, the Hindustan Times reported on Wednesday.

Chaudhary was the circle officer of Sambhal at the time.

The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Vibhanshu Sudheer also directed that an FIR be filed against Inspector Anuj Tomar and several unidentified police personnel, the newspaper reported.

The Sambhal Police said that it will appeal against the order.

On November 24, 2024, violence broke out in Sambhal after a group of Muslims objected to a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Chandausi town.

A trial court had ordered the survey in a suit claiming that the mosque had been built in 1526 by Mughal ruler Babar on the site of the “centuries-old Shri Hari Har Temple dedicated to Lord Kalki”.

Five persons were killed in the violence.

Yameen, the father of the man who was allegedly shot, said that his son, Alam, had left home that day to sell rusks. He alleged that Alam had been shot by the police near the mosque.

Advocate Chaudhary Akhtar Hussain, who represents Alam’s family, alleged that the 24-year-old had to receive medical treatment secretly to avoid being pressured by the police, the Hindustan Times reported.

The petition, which named Chaudhary, Tomar and other police personnel, had been filed before the court in February 2025, the newspaper reported.

The matter was heard by the court on Friday and the order was made public on Tuesday.

Also read: This Instagram-influencer cop is Adityanath’s key to Sambhal

A Muslim woman who had been expelled from India in December moved the Supreme Court on Monday challenging a Gauhati High Court ruling that refused to hear her plea against a tribunal order that declared her a foreigner.

In September 2019, the foreigners’ tribunal had declared Aheda Khatun a foreigner for failing to establish a connection between her Indian parents and grandparents.

The tribunal had not considered documents such as four consecutive voter lists that showed her parents as electors, her school certificate, the permanent residency certificate issued by the village chief and a registered gift deed of a land parcel given to her by her father.

Foreigners tribunals in Assam are quasi-judicial bodies that adjudicate on matters of citizenship. However, the tribunals have been accused of arbitrariness and bias, and of declaring people foreigners on the basis of minor spelling mistakes, a lack of documents or lapses in memory.

She had been held in a detention camp till the High Court in August dismissed her plea, refusing to interfere in her matter.

The court had cited Khatun’s failure to explain the six-year delay in challenging the tribunal’s order. However, it had not commented on the merits of her case.

On December 17, Khatun was among the 15 declared foreigners that the Assam government had ordered to leave the country under the 1950 Immigrants Expulsion from Assam Act. The 44-year-old is still in Bangladesh.

The Act grants power to district commissioners and senior superintendents of police to expel “illegal migrants” from the state by bypassing the foreigners tribunals.

Khatun, in her petition before the Supreme Court, argued that the High Court’s decision violated her personal liberty. She also challenged the tribunal’s order.

On Monday, a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi issued a notice to the Assam government, asking the state to verify the genuineness of the documents being relied on by the family to prove their citizenship.

The authorities have been asked to respond by March 16.

Khatun’s petition in the Supreme Court says that she was born in the state’s Nagaon district in July 1981 and that the name of her parents had appeared continuously in the voter lists of 1965, 1970, 1985 and 1997. Her father had inherited ancestral land in 1987, a part of which he gifted to Khatun in 2010.

The proceedings against Khatun had begun with a police reference allegedly made in 1998 and culminated with the tribunal’s order in 2019, she said in her petition. The reference was based on a report by the electoral registration officer, without a notice being served to Khatun, she alleged.

SC issues notice in another case

On January 8, the Supreme Court also issued a notice to the Union government on a petition filed by another woman challenging a 2020 Gauhati High Court ruling that upheld the 2015 order by the foreigners' tribunal in Kokrajhar district. The tribunal had declared her a foreigner in an ex-parte order.

The woman had been forced into Bangladesh two to three weeks ago, her lawyer told Scroll.

In its 2020 ruling, the High Court said that the woman had appeared before the tribunal in 2009 and her statement had been recorded in 2011. However, the court noted, the woman had stopped appearing before the tribunal and refused to accept a notice on the grounds that her husband’s name was wrongly shown in it.

The High Court said the tribunal had correctly concluded that the name had been accurately shown and that the woman had “deliberately avoided” the proceedings. The tribunal passed its order declaring her a foreigner in December 2015.

The High Court had also noted that the woman had said that her home had been burnt down during a riot in 2012.

The riots in Kokrajhar in 2012 had broken out between Bodos and Bengali-origin Muslims. They had left about 100 dead and rendered four lakh homeless.

The High Court quoted the woman as saying that the riot forced her to live in a relief camp in Dhubri, making it difficult for her to contact her lawyer.

She was arrested in 2019 and held at the Kokrajhar detention camp.

Since April, several persons have been forced into Bangladesh after they allegedly could not prove their Indian citizenship. In some cases, persons who were mistakenly sent to Bangladesh returned to the country after state authorities in India proved that they were Indians.

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday stayed the investigation against Art of Living Foundation founder and spiritual teacher Ravi Shankar in connection with a case pertaining to alleged land encroachment in Bengaluru, reported Bar and Bench.

Art of Living is a non-profit organisation that was founded in 1981 and promotes yoga and meditation.

The stay will remain in force until the next hearing on January 21, according to Live Law.

The case is linked to a public interest litigation filed in 2023, which alleged large-scale encroachment of government land in Kaggalipura village in Bengaluru South Taluk, Bar and Bench reported.

Ravi Shankar was named as one of the respondents in the PIL. However, he has denied owning any land in the area and claimed he had been impleaded in the petition for ulterior motives.

On Tuesday, Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the interim order after stating that prima facie, there were no allegations against Ravi Shankar. However, he clarified that the proceedings were not being terminated, but only kept in abeyance.

“Without any allegations, the petitioner cannot be drawn into the web of crime, unless the learned special public prosecutor would place on record something to indicate that the petitioner is directly involved in certain acts, on the next date of hearing,” the judge was quoted as saying.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Ravi Shankar seeking that the first information report registered against him by the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force in September be quashed.

The High Court had, in the same month, disposed of the public interest litigation alleging land grab and directed the state to take action against any encroachers.

In his petition, Ravi Shankar has said that his name did not appear in the list of alleged encroachers in a memo filed by the state in the now-quashed proceedings. He also pointed out that he had not been named in proceedings initiated by a Land Grabbing Court in 2024.

Despite this, a suo moto FIR was registered on September 19 under the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, naming Ravi Shankar among those accused of encroachment, Ravi Shankar told the court.

Singer Zubeen Garg was “severely intoxicated” and had refused to wear a life jacket when he drowned while swimming in September, The Straits Times quoted the Singapore Police as having told a court on Wednesday.

Assistant Superintendent of Police David Lim of the Singapore Police Coast Guard made the statement while testifying at a Coroner’s Inquiry, which is a fact-finding process in the Southeast Asian country to establish the causes and circumstances of a person’s death.

Garg, a renowned Assamese singer, died on September 19 during a yacht trip in Singapore, a day before he was scheduled to perform at the North East India Festival there.

A death certificate issued by the authorities in Singapore on September 20 stated the cause of Garg’s death as drowning.

On Wednesday, Lim said that witnesses had noted that Garg did not have any suicidal tendencies and was not subjected to duress or coercion before his death, The Straits Times reported.

“He did not wear a life jacket, despite repeated reminders by the yacht captain to wear one,” the Singaporean newspaper quoted Lim as saying.

The police officer said that Garg began swimming away from the yacht without a life jacket, even as others on board tried to convince him to return.

“Suddenly, the deceased became motionless and was floating face down,” Lim was quoted as testifying.

The witnesses also saw foaming at his mouth, Lim added.

Garg was pulled back onto the yacht, where cardiopulmonary resuscitation was administered and an emergency call was made at 3.36 pm. Lim said that a Police Coast Guard vessel arrived at the scene in less than 10 minutes, The Straits Times reported.

He was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 5.13 pm.

An autopsy found 333 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood in Garg’s body, which could have affected his coordination, The Straits Times reported. Singapore’s drink-driving limit is 80 mg per 100 ml of blood. The quantity is 30 mg per 100 ml of blood in India.

The videos recorded on witnesses’ mobile phones were also played in court, showing Garg removing his life jacket, the newspaper reported.

On December 19, Singapore Police reiterated that they did not suspect any foul play in Garg’s death. They had made a similar statement in October.

Meanwhile, a Special Investigation Team in India filed a chargesheet in a Guwahati court on December 12, accusing four of the seven arrested persons of murder.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has repeatedly claimed that Garg’s death was not accidental but was a murder.

The event where the singer was scheduled to perform had been organised by the Indian government and the Indian High Commission in Singapore, with support from the Assam Association and the North East India Association in the country.

The four persons who have been charged for murder by the SIT are Shyamkanu Mahanta, who was the organiser of the North East India Festival, Garg’s manager Siddharatha Sharma and two musicians who were with the singer on the yacht – Shekharjyoti Goswami and Amritprava Mahanta.

Zubeen Garg’s cousin, Deputy Superintendent of Police Sandipan Garg, who had travelled with him to Singapore, has been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, while two of the singer’s personal security officers have been accused of criminal breach of trust.

Also read:

• Are Assam protests over Zubeen Garg’s death becoming a political challenge for Himanta?

• Why musician Zubeen Garg’s death has unleashed a storm of anger in Assam

The Central Bureau of Investigation has summoned actor and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam chief Vijay again for questioning on January 19 in connection with the inquiry into a stampede at his rally in Tamil Nadu’s Karur district that left 41 persons dead, The Hindu quoted unidentified officials as saying on Tuesday.

The central agency had recorded his statement in the matter for over six hours on Monday and wanted to continue the questioning the next day.

However, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam leader CTR Nirmal Kumar said that the party had sought a different date due to the festival of Pongal and other political meetings, The Times of India reported.

The stampede took place on September 27 at Veluchamy Puram in Karur, shortly after 7.30 pm, when Vijay was addressing supporters from his campaign vehicle.

Several of those who attended the rally fainted due to overcrowding. The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam chief’s speech was interrupted twice as ambulances were brought in to take those who collapsed.

The first information report alleged that while permission had been granted for 10,000 attendees, more than 25,000 persons gathered at the venue. Among those who died were 18 women and nine children.

The Supreme Court had ordered an inquiry by the CBI into the stampede on October 13. The bench had also constituted a three-member supervisory committee, headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Ajay Rastogi, to ensure that the investigation was impartial.

The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam also sought an independent investigation monitored by the Supreme Court. It took objection to the High Court forming a Special Investigation Team comprising only officers from the Tamil Nadu Police.

The petition had claimed there was a possibility of a “pre-planned conspiracy” by “miscreants” behind the stampede. It had argued that an independent investigation was unlikely if it was carried out by the state police.

Kuki militant groups and MLAs from the community on Tuesday unanimously resolved to participate in the formation of a new government in Manipur only after getting a political commitment for a Union Territory in the Kuki-Zo-majority areas of the state.

The participants at a meeting held in Assam’s Guwahati adopted several other resolutions, adding that the political settlement “must be finalised and signed before the expiration of the normal tenure” of the current Assembly.

The tenure of the Assembly ends in March 2027.

Manipur has been under President’s Rule since February 2025, when Bharatiya Janata Party leader N Biren Singh resigned as the chief minister.

At least 260 persons have been killed and more than 59,000 persons displaced since the ethnic clashes broke out between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities in May 2023. There were periodic upticks in violence in 2024 and 2025.

Singh had stepped down amid allegations from Kuki-Zomi-Hmar groups that his response to the violence had been partisan and that he had stoked majoritarianism.

While the Meiteis dominate the valley region, the Kukis are in the majority in the state’s hill districts.

The meeting on Tuesday was attended by representatives of Kuki militant groups that are signatories to the Suspension of Operation agreement, MLAs from the community and the Kuki-Zo Council, an organisation of Kuki tribes.

It also came ahead of a meeting between the groups that are parties to the Suspension of Operation agreement and officials of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, The Indian Express reported.

The Suspension of Operations pact was signed between the Centre, the Manipur government and two conglomerates of Kuki militant outfits – the Kuki National Organisation and United Peoples Front – in 2008 and renewed in September.

Under the agreement, the security forces and the militant groups are prohibited from launching operations. The militant groups must abide by the laws of the land and are also confined to designated camps identified by the Union government.

As per the minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday, the resolutions adopted by the participants included a demand that the Union government expedites the political settlement for the creation of a Union Territory with a legislature and constitutional provisions for the protection of land ownership.

The participants said that in the absence of the written commitment, they resolve to “respect the political will of the people by refraining from taking any part” in the formation of a government in Manipur.

The minutes added: “It is resolved that a definitive political solution for the Kuki-Zo people must be achieved before the general election [state polls] of 2027.”

The meeting on Tuesday came nearly a month after BJP MLAs from Manipur were called to Delhi by the party for a meeting, which had led to speculation about government formation in the state.

Four of the seven Kuki-Zo MLAs from the BJP participated in the meeting, The Indian Express reported.

The Meitei MLAs have been demanding the end of President’s Rule and formation of a new government. However, Kuki-Zo groups have maintained that the creation of a separate administrative arrangement in the form of a Union Territory is the way forward to end the conflict in the state.

On January 6, the Kuki-Zo Council also said that members of the community “cannot and shall not” participate in the formation of a new state government, reiterating the demand for a Union Territory.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday verbally remarked that even if the PM Cares Fund is run by the government, it does not lose the right to privacy under the Right to Information Act, Bar and Bench reported.

A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia was referring to third parties’ rights under Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act that bars the disclosure of personal information, and not the general right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution.

The Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund was established in March 2020 with the stated objective of being a dedicated national fund to deal with “any kind of emergency or distress situation” in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Even if it is state, merely because it is state, does it lose its right to privacy?” the High Court was quoted as having asked. “How can you say that?”

The bench observed: “Merely because there is an entity discharging certain public functions, or if it is managed, supervised and controlled by the government, it is still a juristic personality. How can you deny such a right [to privacy] conferred on it merely because it is a public authority?”

Upadhyaya said that the RTI Act bars information about third parties being provided in response to a query, Bar and Bench reported. He added that there cannot be a difference between the privacy rights of a public or a private trust under the Act.

The bench made the observations while hearing an appeal seeking the disclosure of the information and documents submitted by the PM Cares Fund to get an income tax exemption.

The Central Information Commission had allowed the plea and directed the Income Tax Department to disclose the information.

In January 2024, a single-judge bench of the High Court had set aside the commission’s directive, ruling that the panel does not have the jurisdiction to order the disclosure of the information under Section 138 of the Income Tax Act.

Section 138 of the Act governs the disclosure of information about taxpayers by the authorities.

The single-judge bench had observed that the provision in the Income Tax Act prevails over Section 22 of the RTI Act, which establishes the information law’s precedence over other laws.

The right to information applicant in the matter had then challenged the ruling before the division bench.

On Tuesday, the counsel representing the petitioner argued that the PM Cares Fund is not covered under the exemption granted in Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act. He added that a public charitable trust set up by the government cannot have the right to privacy under the statute, Bar and Bench reported.

The bench will hear the matter next on February 10.

The PM Cares Fund has been the subject of criticism from Opposition parties, who have raised questions about its transparency, and have questioned the need to create the reserve when the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund existed.

In December 2020, the Union government had said in a reply to a Right to Information query that the fund was “owned and established” by the government. However, it said that the fund does not come under the RTI Act because it receives funds from private sources.

In September 2021, it told the High Court that the PM Cares Fund can neither be listed as “the state” nor a “public authority” under the RTI Act.

In December, several district administrations in Jammu and Kashmir banned the use of “unauthorised Virtual Private Network services”, citing security concerns. District officials claimed that VPNs could be misused by “terrorists and their supporters for encrypted communication”.

VPNs allow users to mask their Internet Protocol, or IP, address and browse the internet securely while shielding their identity and data. This also allows users to bypass government and local restrictions on websites.

However, experts argue that the blanket ban on the use of VPNs in Jammu and Kashmir is legally and constitutionally flawed. For one, there are no provisions under any Indian laws prohibiting or restricting the use of VPNs. The ban also contradicts Supreme Court rulings on privacy and the right to access the internet.

“At present, no law in India prohibits the use of VPNs,” said former judge and advocate Bharat Chugh, who practises in Delhi. He said the Information Technology Act, 2000, criminalises the misuse of digital technology for hacking or identity theft, but “does not outlaw the tools through which such offences might be committed”.

The fresh ban on VPNs is tied to Jammu and Kashmir’s long history of internet shutdowns and the use of even anti-terror provisions against residents to curb internet and social media access. In the past, too, the local administration had tried to crackdown on the use of VPNs.

This time, as experts pointed out, the administration used prohibitory orders under the Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita to ban the use of VPNs.

Chugh described the ban on VPNs as a constitutional concern and an overreach of emergency powers. Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita was “never intended to regulate everyday digital behaviour”, said Chugh. “...Such emergency powers are meant for imminent, localised law-and-order situations and cannot and should not be converted into tools for regulating digital technology.”

Bans through prohibitory orders

In Jammu and Kashmir, at least 10 district administrations banned the use of VPNs using Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita which empowers district magistrates to issue prohibitory orders in “urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger”.

The Kulgam district administration, in its order dated December 27, said that the decision followed a warning from the Senior Superintendent of Police about an “unprecedented surge” in the use of VPNs by a “significant number of suspicious internet users” across the district.

The order claimed that such “excessive and abnormal usage” could be misused for “unlawful and anti-national activities”, such as “incitement of unrest, dissemination of inflammatory or misleading content, and coordination of activities prejudicial to the maintenance of public order and security”.

The administration said that since it was “not feasible to serve notice individually”, it passed the order “ex-parte” – without hearing the other side.

Similar prohibitory orders were issued in other districts, including Baramulla, where the order clarified that VPNs could be used only by those “authorised/permitted by the government or any competent authority for legitimate official or professional purposes”, without mentioning what constituted such use.

Following the orders, the Kashmir Police said they carried out “systematic verification and monitoring” across several districts and found 24 people in violation of them between December 29 and January 2. The police registered FIRs against two individuals, whom they described as having “adverse terror-related backgrounds”.

Preventive proceedings were initiated against 11 others under Sections 126 and 170 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita. Section 126 empowers an Executive Magistrate to take preventive action, while Section 170 grants the police the power to make preventive arrests without a magistrate’s order or warrant.

Police reported similar action in Pulwama, Sopore, Anantnag, and Kulgam, marking an expanded use of preventive law to enforce the VPN ban.

Scroll contacted three police officials asking about the arrests. Two declined to comment, while one said the “decision was taken by the district administration and they were merely following due procedure”. Kulgam District Magistrate Athar Aamir Khan was also contacted, but he did not respond to calls and messages.

J&K police files FIR under UA (P) and IT act against individuals for defying government orders and misusing social media. IGP Kashmir,Vijay Kumar, makes an "appeal" to general public not to use social media through VPN's.#Kashmir pic.twitter.com/ovaTb3YB3D

— Azaan Javaid (@AzaanJavaid) February 17, 2020

No laws against VPN use

Legal experts said there is little legal basis for district administrations in Jammu and Kashmir to impose a blanket ban on VPNs and arrest people.

Apar Gupta, founder of the Internet Freedom Foundation, told Scroll that India’s existing legal framework focuses on VPN service providers, not users. “There is no general statutory ban in the IT Act or the BNSS on ordinary citizens using VPNs,” Gupta said. “Instead, compliance duties are imposed on providers.”

Using a VPN is not illegal under existing laws but the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team had issued cyber security directions in April 2022 under the Information Technology Act, 2000. These directions required a wide range of entities, including hosting, VPN and Virtual Private Server service providers, to maintain detailed records of their users’ activities.

After the issuance of these directions, several VPN service providers chose to shut down their servers in India, citing concerns over “user privacy and data retention”.

According to a report by the Internet Freedom Foundation, “these service providers could be required to hand over this information” to CERT-In at any time. The report also noted that the 2022 directions do not place any limits on how long CERT-In may retain this data or with whom it may be shared.

In September 2022, SnTHostings, a company which provides hosting, VPN, and VPS services, approached the Delhi High Court challenging the legality of the CERT-In directions. The petition was eventually withdrawn on the petitioner’s instructions on March 14, 2024.

Advocate Abhinav Sekhri, who represented SnTHostings before the Delhi High Court, told Scroll that the case had to be withdrawn as the client “didn’t wish to pursue the case”.

On the merits of the challenge, he said that the issue “has not been heard by any court in India,” and therefore, “there is no answer to whether these directions will stand judicial scrutiny”.

Sekhri added that the 2022 directions introduced “business practices that effectively gave the government a backdoor to access large amounts of VPN-related data”, thereby undermining the very purpose for which VPNs are used.

Immediate Suspension of Virtual Private Network (VPN) services in District #Kulgam. Imposition of Restrictions under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS).@diprjk@ddnewsSrinagar@PIBSrinagar @airnewsalerts #ORDER pic.twitter.com/Ph8BVeU3gs

— Information and PR Kulgam (@DioKulgam) December 30, 2025

Misuse of prohibitory orders

Legal experts also flagged the misuse of prohibitory orders.

Gupta of the Internet Freedom Foundation said it is doubtful that Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita can be used to justify a district-wide ban on VPNs in Jammu and Kashmir. “These powers are meant to be urgent and time-bound, based on material facts showing a specific apprehended danger,” he added.

A blanket ban, like the ones being imposed in Kashmir, wrongly assumes that privacy tools like VPNs are inherently harmful and risks “turning an emergency power into a routine policy decision”, rather than a response to a specific and immediate threat, he said.

Sekhri, the lawyer who represented SnTHostings, said that “since the use of VPNs is not illegal in itself”, it also raises serious questions about “how preventive powers under Section 163 of the BNSS can be invoked to restrict VPN” use or to take individuals into custody.

Chugh, referring to the absence of any specific legal ban on the use of VPNs, warned against punishing actions that are not illegal. “There is no crime without law,” he said. “Detaining or questioning people just for using VPNs blurs the line between prevention and punishment”.

“Section 163 is a fire-extinguisher provision”, said Chugh. “It is designed for sudden and imminent threats, riots, epidemics, and violent assemblies, not to restructure the digital habits of an entire population.” Using such powers to prohibit VPN usage, he argued, “represents a fundamental category error”.

Gupta also pointed to the Supreme Court’s ruling in January 2020 in the case of Anuradha Bhasin, where the court held that internet restrictions cannot be “indefinite and must meet the tests of necessity and proportionality”. He also referred to the Supreme Court’s KS Puttaswamy ruling on privacy, which laid down that “any intrusion into privacy must have a clear legal basis”, pursue a legitimate aim, and be proportionate.

Against this legal backdrop, Gupta argued that a district-wide VPN ban is “unlikely to withstand scrutiny under Articles 19 [freedom of speech] and 21 [right to life] unless it is narrowly tailored to a clearly demonstrated emergency” and supported by explicit statutory authority.

A pattern of restrictions

Jammu and Kashmir has a long history of internet censorship and shutdowns. A complete communications blackout was imposed in 2019, ahead of Parliament’s decision to abrogate Article 370.

When internet services were partially restored in January 2020, access was throttled at 2G speeds for verified users, with only whitelisted websites allowed and social media platforms blocked. During this period, many residents turned to VPN services to access information unavailable due to these restrictions.

A 2020 Scroll report highlighted that residents of several villages in Kulgam alleged that army personnel checked young people’s phones for VPN apps, and that those found using them were allegedly assaulted. VPN use in Kashmir was also curtailed through “written undertakings” that broadband internet users were required to sign, committing that they would not use VPN services.

In February 2020, the cyber wing of the Jammu and Kashmir Police registered a first information report alleging the “misuse of social media” through VPNs. The FIR invoked provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and several sections of the Indian Penal Code against unknown persons.

Around the same time, a 17-year-old was taken into custody and booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, highlighting the harsh legal consequences linked to alleged VPN use.

Such restrictions have not been limited to Jammu and Kashmir. In June 2025, the Manipur government also suspended internet and mobile data services, including VPN services, for five days across five districts of the state. According to reports, the state’s government said that social media platforms were being used to “facilitate and/or mobilise mobs of agitators and demonstrators.”

The ban was imposed under Rule 2 of the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services Rules, 2017, which allows the Centre or state home secretaries to suspend telecom services.

Standing on the Indora Bridge in Nagpur, one can catch a glimpse of the Namantar Shahid Smarak – a memorial to 27 Dalit activists who were killed during the 16-year Namantar Andolan that started in 1978 to have Marathwada University renamed after BR Ambedkar.

Not surprisingly, some members of the upper castes and land-owning feudal classes in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region opposed this demand for a gesture that would pay tribute to the architect of India’s Constitution for leading the struggle for equality and his efforts to democratise education.

Among them was Shiv Sena head Bal Thackrey. “Gharat nahi peeth ani magtay vidyapeeth,” he sneered. You don’t have a loaf of bread to eat, but you want a university.

Significant markers of the movement included the Long March in 1979, which set out from Nagpur for Aurangabad, 470 km away; the Jail Bharo Andolan to court arrest between 1978 and 1994; and several attacks on protestors by feudal-caste groups that opposed the name change. This movement also helped shape the course of a Dalit literature.

The struggle ended with a compromise on January 14, 1994, to rechristen the institution as Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University. To remember the sacrifices made by the Dalit protestors and to advance the effort to create an egalitarian society based on the principles of humanity, the struggle is commemorated across Maharashtra with key events in Aurangabad (now Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) and Nagpur on that date each year.

Namantar Andolan Memories Long March For Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar University...

The Namantar Andolan was a 16-year-long Dalit campaign to rename Marathwada University in recognition of Babashaheb Ambedkar University.#NamantarAndolan pic.twitter.com/jJuDvjYxNx

— Apurv JyotiChandra Kurudgikar (@ApurvKurudgikar) January 14, 2021

The annual event offers hope and opportunities for Dalit politics by connecting with the idea of “true politics” that gives a voice to those who are marginalised, making them active participants instead of mere subjects who must conform to the dictates of the state and society. This true politics supports the discourse of natural rights, equality and intellectual freedom, empowering Dalits to express dissent.

Commemorations such as this one enable Dalits to gain a political education from their lives, rather than relying solely on theoretical models.

During the 16-year struggle, the opposition to the Namantar Andolan brought into the open the deep-rooted feudal and caste nexus that had permeated society and politics in Marathwada and Maharashtra in general. It also laid bare the “politics of humiliation” being practised by these groups, undermining the demand by Dalits for dignity and respect.

The Andolan was a response to these Brahmanical power structures. It was a “rejection of rejection”, as political scientist Gopal Guru has described the process.

The government and dominant groups have established a “mnemonic hegemony”, or the power to shape how history is told and which is sidelined. The Namantar Aandolan challenged the power of feudal caste groups to dictate history by asserting its own “mnemonic sovereignty”.

The justified demand to rename the university to Dr Ambedkar University reflected a fairer version of history that had been sidelined by the feudal upper-caste groups.

Dalit students began using the name “Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar University” in their official correspondence even before their demand was granted. They started their own journals and media platforms to communicate their version of events, avoiding mainstream media platforms that were biased in favour of the elite.

The Andolan employed creative methods of storytelling – for instance, using protest songs that shared its struggles and documented the violence perpetrated by both state and non-state actors. The Andolan’s Long March of 1979 made the fight against caste injustice visible. The movement revived the memories and spirit of the Dalit Panther, a militant organisation founded in 1972, inspired by the Black Panther movement in the US.

Namantar movement was a 20-year-long Ambedkarite-Buddhist movement to rename Marathwada University. Hundreds of Ambedkarite-Buddhists and allies shed their blood to reclaim the dream of Dr Ambedkar in the arena of higher education.#bakeryprasad pic.twitter.com/KTdr7A06sc

— Siddhesh Gautam (@siddheshgautam) January 14, 2023

The Andolan, which began as the Namantar Andolan, culminated not with a name change but a name extension – a namvistaar. It revealed the state’s apathy towards Dalit claims for dignity, as well as the state’s tendency to protect the feudal caste-class nexus.

But there were crucial victories. The Andolan had encouraged solidarity between various Dalit sub-castes. For instance, Pochiram Kamble, who is commemorated in the Nagpur memorial, belonged to the Mang community in a struggle where Mahars (the sub-caste to which Ambedkar belonged) were in the majority.

Also commemorated on the memorial is Abdul Sattar, marking the shared history of hardship and oppression between Muslims and Dalits.

As a young person wondering whether Viksit Bharat has a place for Dalits or if the community is being used as pawns in Hindutva’s battle against minorities, January 14 is an opportunity to look back on a crucial campaign and try to understand the crucial lessons that Marathwada’s Namantran Andolan offers to navigate a course for Dalit true politics as it embraces the future.

Nikhil Sanjay-Rekha Adsule is a senior research scholar at IIT-Delhi. His X handle is @beingkhilji.

The Election Commission on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it is entitled to examine the citizenship of individuals to decide whether they are eligible to be included in voters’ lists, The Indian Express reported.

Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, for the poll panel, told a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi that the electoral registration officer was “competent to take a view” under Article 326 of the Constitution, the Representation of People Act and the Registration of Electors Rules.

Article 326 establishes elections to the Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies to be based on adult suffrage.

The bench has been hearing petitions against the validity of the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls being conducted across the country.

Dwiwedi noted that in several regulatory frameworks, such as those governing mining leases or other statutory benefits, citizenship was a prerequisite and could be inquired into by the competent authority, PTI reported.

During the course of the hearing, the bench also asked whether it was within the scheme of the Citizenship Act to refer the electoral registration officer’s findings that a person is not a citizen to the Union government and strip him off voting rights even before it takes a decision.

The decision of the Union government “would be for the purpose of examining whether he is entitled to stay in India or should be deported or not”, Dwivedi said, adding that it was the Election Commission that has the power “as far as electoral roll is concerned”, the newspaper reported.

“That’s enough to strike him off the electoral roll,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying.

The advocate also noted that there were enough safeguards for an aggrieved person.

Dwivedi also noted that Article 326 does not explain how to decide on citizenship. Article 5 of the Constitution speaks about who shall be the citizen of India at its commencement, he added.

Article 5 defines citizenship at the Constitution’s commencement on January 26, 1950.

“But what is to happen (after), because this is a continuous process of people coming into being and passing out of being, it does not say,” The Indian Express quoted the advocate as saying.

In response, the chief justice said that the “expression used in Articles 5, 6 and 7 are transitional in nature” as at the time of the creation of the country, its residents needed to take a final decision as to where they would finally settle down.

Article 6 grants citizenship rights to certain persons who migrated from Pakistan to India after the Partition and Article 7 addresses citizenship for those who migrated from India to Pakistan after March 1, 1947.

Dwivedi added that these sections do not help in deciding citizenship.

“They furnish no criteria for deciding how, but it does tell us two things that domicile, residence and birth in India are important,” the newspaper quoted the advocate as saying. “The most important is birth.”

The bench will continue hearing the matter on Thursday.

The special intensive revision of the electoral rolls is underway in 12 states and Union Territories.

In Bihar, where the revision was completed ahead of the Assembly elections in November, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll published on September 30.

Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll.

Out of 1,318 documented hate speech incidents targeting religious minorities in India last year, 1,163 or 88% took place in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states, said a report by Washington-based research group India Hate Lab on Tuesday.

The report documented hate speech incidents in 23 states and Union Territories, including Delhi.

The researchers used the United Nations' definition of hate speech, which describes it as pejorative or discriminatory language towards an individual or group based on attributes including religion, ethnicity, nationality, race or gender.

According to the report, “in-person hate speech” events targeting religious minorities, primarily Muslims and Christians, rose by 13% in India in 2025, as compared to the previous year. There was a 97% increase in such incidents since 2023.

“In-person hate speech events” refers to incidents that took place at political rallies, religious processions, protest marches and cultural gatherings.

Of the 1,318 such incidents, 1,289, or 98%, targeted Muslims, said the report.

Muslims were explicitly targeted in 1,156 cases and targeted alongside Christians in 133 cases, a nearly 12% increase from 2024, it added.

Hate speech targeting Christians was recorded in 162 incidents, accounting for 12% of all events. Of these, Christians were explicitly targeted in 29 cases, while the remaining incidents involved speeches targeting both Muslims and Christians.

This was a 41% increase from the 115 anti-Christian incidents recorded in 2024.

April recorded the highest monthly spike, with 158 hate speech events. This coincided with Ram Navami processions and hate rallies organised in response to the Pahalgam terror attack.

In the 16 days between April 22 and May 7, following the Pahalgam attack and before Operation Sindoor, India’s military action against Pakistan, 98 in-person hate speech events were documented. This indicated a rapid and nationwide anti-Muslim mobilisation, the report said.

Meanwhile, of the 10 most “prolific hate speech actors” identified in the report, five were leaders of the ruling BJP, it added.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, a BJP leader, emerged as the “most prolific hate speech actor”, with 71 speeches, followed by the chief of the Hindutva organisation Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad Pravin Togadia with 46 speeches and BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay with 35 speeches, the report noted.

Maharashtra minister and BJP leader Nitesh Rane ranked fourth with 28 speeches.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah ranked sixth with 27 speeches, while Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ranked ninth with 22 speeches, said the report.

It also found that 88% of all hate speech events occurred in BJP-ruled states or those governed by the National Democratic Alliance.

This was 25% higher than in 2024, when 931 incidents were recorded in these jurisdictions.

Of the 23 states and Union Territories analysed, the BJP was in power, either independently or as part of a coalition, in 16 for most of the year.

The highest numbers of hate speech events were recorded in Uttar Pradesh (266), Maharashtra (193), Madhya Pradesh (172), Uttarakhand (155) and Delhi (76).

Together, these accounted for 65% of all incidents nationwide.

In contrast, the seven states governed by Opposition parties or coalitions recorded 154 hate speech events in 2025, a 34% decline from the 234 incidents documented in these states in 2024.

Additionally, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal were linked to 289 hate speech events, followed by the Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad with 138 events.

In total, more than 160 organisations and informal groups were identified as organisers or co-organisers of hate speech events in 2025.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal are part of a group of Hindutva organisations led by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent organisation of the ruling BJP.

Four of the holiest shrines for Hindus lie high up in the Uttarakhand Himalayas. Travelling to the Chardham – as the shrines are collectively called – always meant braving some risk.

But an expert committee warned in 2020 that the risk would multiply if the government went ahead with its plans to widen the existing roads into double-lane highways, which would leave the mountains unstable.

The Modi government ignored the warning.

And now, the fallout is being felt on the ground, with an increased number of landslides being reported along the Chardham route.

Over 300 km, driving between Rishikesh and Badrinath, we used a GPS app to tag the location of every landslide that we encountered. The number of landslides we recorded was startling – as were the stories of loss and damage we collected along the way.

Watch our report to find out more.

Also read: On the road to Chardham, a landslide every two kilometres

The Union government has urged quick-commerce companies to stop claiming to offer 10-minute delivery services to protect the rights and safety of gig workers, according to media reports. As part of this change, Blinkit has reportedly revised its principal tagline from “10,000+ products delivered in 10 minutes” to “30,000+ products delivered at your doorstep”.

This came days after platform workers’ unions had called on workers in the quick-commerce sector to strike in the last week of December to demand reforms in the gig economy. The protests disrupted the operations of Zomato, Swiggy, Blinkit and Zepto in several cities ahead of the New Year celebrations.

Earlier, gig workers had also submitted a memorandum to Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya seeking his intervention to discontinue 10-20 minute delivery mandates. Read on.

A gig worker writes: Why Deepinder Goyal is wrong about the high ‘churn’ rate in the sector

The Supreme Court delivered a split verdict on the constitutionality of an amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Act mandating permission from the government to begin investigations against public servants under the law. Justice BV Nagarathna held that the provision contravenes the Constitution.

On the other hand, KV Viswanathan upheld the provision, but read it down to state that sanction should depend on the recommendation of the Lokpal or Lokayukta.

The Lokpal at the Centre and the Lokayukta at the state level are anti-corruption ombudsmen. On account of the divergent views, the court directed that the case be placed before the chief justice, who could direct another bench to decide on the questions at hand. Read on.

The civic authorities and persons who feed stray dogs could be held responsible for injuries or deaths caused by animal attacks, the Supreme Court said. The bench said that for every “dog bite, death or injury”, the court would “fix heavy compensation” on the state.

“Liability and accountability [will also be placed] on those who are saying we are feeding dogs,” the court observed. It made the remarks while monitoring compliance with its November 7 order directing local authorities to remove stray dogs from government premises such as hospitals, schools and railway stations. Read on.

Around 2,000 persons, including security personnel, have been killed in the anti-government protests in Iran over the past two weeks, said an unidentified official. He said that “terrorists” were behind the killings.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said he was “horrified” by the violence in the country. “The killing of peaceful demonstrators must stop, and the labelling of protesters as ‘terrorists’ to justify violence against them is unacceptable,” Turk stated. Read on.

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Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has urged quick-commerce companies to discontinue the claim and branding of 10-minute delivery services to protect the rights and safety of gig workers, CNBC-TV18 reported on Tuesday.

Unidentified officials in the labour ministry told the news outlet that Mandaviya held a series of meetings with representatives of Blinkit, Zepto, Zomato and Swiggy in the past month to discuss delivery timelines and their impact on workers.

The meetings came weeks after several unions, including the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers and the Gig and Platform Service Workers Union, called on workers in the quick-commerce sector to strike in the last week of December to demand reforms in the gig economy.

The workers had sought regulation of platform companies under labour laws, a ban on unsafe 10-minute delivery models, an end to arbitrary ID blocking and penalties, transparent wages, social security, and protection of the right to organise and engage in collective bargaining.

The protests disrupted the operations of Zomato, Swiggy, Blinkit and Zepto in several cities ahead of the New Year celebrations.

An unidentified Labour Ministry official told The Hindu that during the meetings, Mandaviya questioned platforms about the promise of 10-minute deliveries.

Company representatives told the minister that such timelines were enabled by warehouses located close to consumers and not by putting pressure on delivery workers.

“However, the minister urged them to stop this branding practice considering the health and welfare of delivery workers and the companies agreed,” the official was quoted as saying.

As part of this change, Blinkit has updated its brand messaging, CNBC TV18 reported. The company has revised its principal tagline from “10,000+ products delivered in 10 minutes” to “30,000+ products delivered at your doorstep”, according to the news outlet.

The company is yet to issue an official statement regarding and it is unclear whether the proposal has been accepted or what the timeline for its implementation would be.

Aam Aadmi Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha said he was “deeply grateful” for the “decisive and compassionate” intervention.

“This is a much-needed step because when ‘10 minutes’ is printed on a rider’s t-shirt/jacket/bag and a timer runs on the customer’s screen, the pressure is real, constant and dangerous,” he said in a social media post.

Chadha added the move would help ensure the safety of delivery riders and others on the road.

Satyamev Jayate. Together, we have won..

I am deeply grateful to the Central Government for its timely, decisive and compassionate intervention in enforcing the removal of the “10-minute delivery” branding from quick-commerce platforms. This is a much needed step because when…

— Raghav Chadha (@raghav_chadha) January 13, 2026

Earlier, gig workers had also submitted a memorandum to Mandaviya seeking his intervention to discontinue 10-20 minute delivery mandates, The Hindu reported.

Welcoming the intervention, Shaik Salauddin, general secretary of the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers, said the move addressed long-standing concerns.

“The 10-minute delivery model forced delivery partners into dangerous road behaviour, extreme stress and unsafe working conditions,” Salauddin was quoted as saying. “We welcome and thank the minister for listening to workers’ voices and intervening decisively in the interest of their safety.”

Growing up in rural India, my grandmother would feed the village dog half a chapati and a bowl of milk each afternoon, surely insufficient for its needs. The dog survived by scavenging from nearby homes. Years later, living in Delhi, I encountered street dogs refusing biscuits, overfed by households competing to care for them.

India’s unique mix of religious and cultural values creates a deep tolerance for non-humans and wildlife among rich and poor alike, often rooted in millennia of coexistence. People consciously endure significant risks to coexist with animals. However, this dynamic is shifting as cities grow and their dogs become more territorial in crowded and more littered shared spaces.

India has at least 60 million free-ranging dogs, an estimate more than a decade old. More recent surveys found about 1 million in Delhi alone. Relatedly, India also accounts for more than a third of global rabies deaths.

Unlike most western countries, Indian culture and laws forbid culling. Dogs must instead be caught, sterilised, vaccinated and – crucially – returned to their exact territory. In practice, these mandates are frequently ignored.

Things changed in August 2025. After several children were mauled by street dogs, the Supreme Court briefly ordered all street dogs in Delhi and the surrounding region be rounded up and placed in shelters or pounds, promising dog-free streets for the first time in decades.

The order was unworkable – there simply aren’t shelters for millions of dogs – and sparked a fierce backlash from animal rights groups. Within two days, the court reversed its decision and reinstated the long-standing sterilisation policy.

Subsequent rulings have narrowed the focus. In November 2025 the court ordered dogs be removed from schools, hospitals and public transport zones nationwide, while adding restrictions on public feeding and encouraging fencing to keep dogs away.

Most recently, on January 7, it directed authorities to fence and secure all of India’s 1.5 million schools and colleges from dogs – all within just eight weeks. Yet, like the earlier order, the aggressive timeline ignores the infrastructure challenges and is unlikely to significantly reduce the frequency of bites or resulting infection. The court is currently holding hearings with interested parties, as it tries to find a middle ground between mass removal of dogs and animal welfare concerns.

The nation is divided. It seems the state cannot kill these dogs, nor house them, nor control them. The question of what to do with them is one of public safety and animal welfare, but also something deeper: the latest chapter in one of evolution’s most remarkable partnerships.

An experiment in coexistence

Dogs are the only vertebrate species that followed human migration out of Africa into every climate and settlement. While the exact moment of domestication is uncertain, we know that dogs evolved to live alongside humans. But our cross-species ties now face unprecedented challenge of tropical urbanism.

In the past few centuries, as dogs earned their way into our homes, humans created over 400 breeds, fine-tuned for companionship, work or aesthetics. This co-evolution matters, as it means dogs are attuned to human cues and form strong attachments to specific people and places. In urban India, where dogs are unowned but aren’t truly wild, that attachment expresses itself as territorial behaviour over a home or someone who feeds them.

Social-ecological laboratory

India offers an unparalleled window into this relationship. Historically, street dogs served as scavengers. In poorer communities, they still do. But in more prosperous districts, they are now intentionally fed.

Preliminary research in Delhi I carried out with my colleague Bharti Sharma reveals dogs organise into packs around specific households where a few committed feeders can meet nearly 100% of their dietary needs. This supports much higher dog densities than scavenging ever could.

Urban collision

This is where ancient coexistence collides with modern urban design. Indian streets are multi-use spaces. In tropical climates, waste pickers and blue-collar workers often operate at night – the very hours when dogs are most territorial, and when the wealthier residents who feed them are asleep.

Dogs have adapted their behaviour – barking, chasing, occasionally biting – in ways that get unintentionally rewarded by feeders but create hazards for others. The statistics are sobering: millions of bites and thousands of rabies deaths each year.

Yet some backlash to the supreme court’s mandates was inevitable. As gentrification changes who gets to decide what urban life should look like, a conflict of values has emerged. Some value shared animal presence, while others prioritise risk elimination.

Path forward

We may have reached “peak mutualism” in India’s cities. Despite daily nuisances everyone suffers – the barking, the chasing – millions still feed these dogs. Yet the same dog that wags its tail at familiar feeders may bite someone new. This is not irrational aggression; it is territorial protection born of deep association with a specific human community.

Western cities culled their street dogs long ago because social priorities were more uniform. India’s diversity means no such consensus exists. It may take another 20 or 30 years before its urban population uniformly sees the presence of territorial dogs as intolerable.

As India urbanises, it must decide whether to maintain spaces for ancient relationships that predate cities themselves or follow the western path of total management.

My grandmother’s half-chapati ritual represented an older compact: minimal investment, peaceful coexistence and mutual benefit. Delhi’s overfed, territory-defending dogs represent a new, more intensified intimacy – and it is unclear whether this serves either species well.

Nishant Kumar is India Alliance Fellow, National Centre for Biological Science, Bangalore & Department of Biology, University of Oxford.

This article was first published on The Conversation.

The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday dismissed Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal’s petition seeking a separate trial from his party colleague, Sanjay Singh, in a criminal defamation case filed by Gujarat University after their comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s academic qualifications, Live Law reported.

The court had reserved its verdict in the matter in December.

A single bench of Justice MR Mengdey dismissed the pleas filed by the AAP leaders who had moved the High Court after their pleas seeking a separation of trial were rejected by the trial, city sessions coand magistrate courts.

Kejriwal had argued before the sessions court that he and Singh should not be tried together as the dates of the alleged incidents were different, Live Law reported.

It was submitted that both leaders had uploaded separate videos on their personal social media accounts and that evidence against one could not be used against the other.

On December 15, the sessions court observed that Kejriwal had held a press conference on April 1, 2023, and Singh on April 2, 2023, during which they used defamatory language that tarnished the image and reputation of Gujarat University.

The videos of the press conferences were later uploaded on social media, Live Law reported.

The court had said at the time that the term “same offence” indicates the “same act of crime” as per Section 223 of the now-repealed Code of Criminal Procedure that lays down instances where persons can be jointly accused of a crime.

“If they are animated by a common purpose, and there is a continuity in their action, then surely there is one transaction so far as they are concerned,” the court had said at the time.

The defamation suit

On March 31, 2023, the Gujarat High Court quashed a 2016 directive of the Central Information Commission asking the Gujarat University to provide details about the prime minister’s degrees to Kejriwal. The Central Information Commission is the top appellate body under the Right to Information Act.

The Gujarat University had opposed the order in the High Court, saying that someone’s “irresponsible childish curiosity” cannot be deemed to be in the public interest under the Right to Information Act.

Soon after the judgement, the university filed a criminal defamation case against Kejriwal and Singh, alleging that they had made derogatory statements about Modi’s educational qualifications in the press.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has claimed that Modi was awarded a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Delhi University in 1978 and a Master of Arts degree from Gujarat University in 1983. However, the Aam Aadmi Party has alleged that the degrees are fabricated.

Also read:

• Anand Teltumbde: Why the controversy about Modi’s degrees is a test for Indian democracy
• Explainer: Why the Gujarat High Court blocked the release of Modi’s degrees

The Union government has informed the Supreme Court that it has constituted a high-level inter-departmental committee to “comprehensively examine all facets” of digital arrests in the country, The Indian Express reported on Tuesday.

The inter-departmental panel is headed by the special secretary (internal security) of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

The committee has held three meetings of which the latest on January 6 was attended by representatives of online intermediary platforms such as Google, WhatsApp, Telegram and Microsoft.

While the first meeting was held in December, a second virtual discussion was held on January 2. It was attended by representatives of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, the Reserve Bank of India, the Department of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the newspaper reported.

The Supreme Court was informed about the committee in a status report ahead of a hearing scheduled on Tuesday.

The multi-agency committee was formed after a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant on December 1 directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to crack down on “digital arrest” scammers, The Hindu reported.

In cases of “digital arrest”, criminals usually orchestrate the fraud by posing as law enforcement officers, often wearing uniforms and making video calls to victims from locations made to resemble government offices or police stations. They demand money for a “compromise” and “closure of a case” against the victims.

In some cases, the victims are “digitally arrested” with the scamsters claiming that the persons are required to be visible until their demands are met.

The court had on December 1 also extended a “free hand” to the agency to launch an anti-corruption investigation into bankers involved in the opening of mule accounts linked to cyber crimes.

The bench had expressed shock at the “staggering amounts” digital arrest scammers have been able to siphon off from India.

In its status report, the Union government said that the committee would convene at regular intervals to “ensure time-bound and coordinated compliance”.

The government sought at least a month’s time to obtain inputs from the remaining members of the committee, hold further meetings and come up with a “consolidated and considered outcome” before the court.

The Union home ministry told Parliament in December that the National Crime Records Bureau compiles statistics about crimes, and it has not maintained specific data relating to digital arrest scams.

The ministry had said in March 2025 that Indians had lost Rs 2,576 crore to “digital arrest scams and related cybercrimes” between 2022 and February 2025.

The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre had found that 46% of the cyber frauds reported between January 2024 and April 2024 originated in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, The Indian Express reported in October 2024.

In January 2025, Scroll published a series of extensive reports about Chinese crime syndicates that run cyber crime centres from Southeast Asia, mainly Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. These highly sophisticated “scam compounds” are staffed with thousands of people, many of them from India, who are lured with fake job offers and then forced to work on scamming people back home.

Also read:

• My father lost Rs 10 lakh in a digital arrest scam. Here’s how he got some money back
• ‘Felt like I was under hypnosis’: How digital arrest scams dupe Indians of their hard-earned money

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that both civic authorities and individuals who feed stray dogs could be held responsible for injuries or deaths caused by animal attacks, Live Law reported.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and NV Anjaria verbally observed that for every “dog bite, death or injury caused to children or elderly”, the court would “fix heavy compensation” on the state for “not doing anything”.

“Liability and accountability [will also be placed] on those who are saying we are feeding dogs,” Live Law quoted Nath as observing. “Do it [feed the dogs], take them to your house. Why should dogs be loitering around biting, scaring people?”

The court made the remarks while monitoring the compliance with its order passed on November 7, which stated that all government premises, such as hospitals, schools and railway stations, must be properly fenced to prevent stray dogs from entering.

The court had said that the local authorities concerned would be responsible for removing stray dogs from such areas and placing them in designated shelters after vaccinating and sterilising them.

Stray dogs picked up from these premises must not be released in the same areas from which they were taken away, the judges had directed in November.

Several animal rights groups had later sought changes to the order, objecting to the ban on releasing the dogs in the same areas, Live Law reported.

In July, a bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan had taken suo motu cognisance of concerns about stray dogs in public places based on a media report. On August 11, it had directed authorities in the National Capital Territory of Delhi to immediately begin relocating street dogs and build shelters for 5,000 to 6,000 animals within six weeks.

However, the case was shifted to a three-judge bench headed by Nath two days later. On August 22, the court stayed the directions given by the two-judge bench and said that stray dogs that are picked up should be released back into the same area after being sterilised, dewormed and immunised.

The court, however, had said that dogs displaying aggressive behaviour, or those infected with rabies, should not be released.

On November 3, the court had also taken serious note of government employees feeding stray dogs within office premises, observing that such conduct violated its directions mandating the creation of designated feeding zones for canines.

Also Read:

• Do animals have rights? The SC ruling on stray dogs shows why this needs to change

• Why the argument that dog lovers are ‘elite’ is flawed

• Mumbai had a street dog issue. Then it didn’t

A delegation from the Communist Party of China met office-bearers of the Bharatiya Janata Party in New Delhi on Monday, marking the first engagement between the two parties since the Galwan clashes in 2020.

Vijay Chauthaiwale, head of BJP’s foreign affairs unit, said on social media that the delegation of the Communist Party of China led by Sun Haiyan, who is vice-president of its international liaison department, visited the headquarters of the Hindutva party.

A BJP delegation headed by party General Secretary Arun Singh “discussed at length the means to advance inter party communications between BJP and CPC”, Chauthaiwale added.

The six-member delegation from China’s ruling party will meet members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Tuesday, The Hindu reported. The RSS is the parent organisation of the BJP.

A delegation of Communist Party of China under the leadership of H.E. Ms. Sun Haiyan, (Vice Minister, IDCPC) visited BJP head office today. During the discussion, a BJP delegation headed by party Gen. Sec. Shri Arun Singh Ji discussed at length the means to advance inter party… pic.twitter.com/5wa89nL4Ih

— Dr Vijay Chauthaiwale (@vijai63) January 12, 2026

The BJP and the Communist Party of China have maintained contacts since the late 2000s, with several delegations from the Hindutva party visiting Beijing to meet Chinese leaders.

In 2009, a delegation of BJP and RSS leaders visited China.

The meeting on Monday was the first since border tensions between India and China escalated in June 2020 when a violent face-off between Indian and Chinese soldiers took place in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control. It led to the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers. Beijing said that the clash left four of its soldiers dead.

The clashes led to strained ties between India and China. The two countries have held several rounds of military and diplomatic talks to resolve their border standoff.

In October 2024, the two countries announced that they had reached a patrolling arrangement along the Line of Actual Control, “leading to the disengagement” of the two militaries in eastern Ladakh.

The agreement in 2024 had come two days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan. This was the first formal meeting of the two leaders since the military standoff began in mid-2020.

The meeting on Monday also came in the backdrop of a thaw in bilateral relations. New Delhi and Beijing last year agreed to restore direct flights, ease visa restrictions and resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.

The delegation from the Communist Party of China is also expected to meet members of the Opposition Congress, The Hindu quoted unidentified party leaders as saying.

However, Congress leader Supriya Shrinate on Tuesday criticised the BJP’s meeting with the Chinese delegation.

“China supported Pakistan during Operation Sindoor,” Shrinate said in a social media post. “Our brave soldiers were martyred in Galwan. China is sitting there after encroaching in Ladakh. It is settling villages in Arunachal Pradesh. And here, hugs are being exchanged.”

यह फोटो BJP दफ्तर की है

BJP के नेता और चीन की कम्युनिस्ट पार्टी के नेताओं के बीच मीटिंग हो रही है

ऑपरेशन सिंदूर में चीन ने पाकिस्तान का साथ दिया

गलवान में हमारे जांबाज़ों की शहादत हुई

चीन लद्दाख में अतिक्रमण किए बैठा है

अरुणाचल में गांव बसा रहा है

और यहाँ गलबहैया चल रही… pic.twitter.com/oMUr0QsyKd

— Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) January 13, 2026

The BJP and the Congress have traded accusations over ties with Beijing.

The Hindutva party has repeatedly accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and other party leaders of signing a “secret” Memorandum of Understanding with the Chinese Communist Party during a visit to Beijing in 2018, India Today reported.

It also alleged that Gandhi met Chinese officials at the Chinese embassy in Delhi during the Doklam standoff in 2017. The Opposition party has rejected the allegations.

The Congress has repeatedly accused Modi of being “scared of China” and failing to respond firmly to Beijing’s aggression along the Line of Actual Control.

Two suspected cases of Nipah virus infections were detected at the Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory in West Bengal on Monday, Union Health Minister JP Nadda said.

The Nipah virus is a “zoonotic illness” transferred from animals such as pigs and fruit bats to humans. The virus can also be caught through human-to-human transmission.

It causes fever and cold-like symptoms in patients. The infection can also cause encephalitis, which is the inflammation of the brain, and myocarditis, or the inflammation of the heart, in some cases.

The two persons, a man and a woman, are healthcare workers at a private hospital in North 24 Parganas district’s Barasat and are undergoing treatment at the facility, the Hindustan Times reported.

They had gone to their homes in East Midnapore and East Burdwan in December, prior to falling ill. They have no history of travel outside the state, The Indian Express quoted West Bengal Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty as saying.

They are reported to be in a “very critical” condition and have been kept on ventilator support.

The chief secretary said the state’s health department is tracing persons who may have come in contact with the two healthcare workers in North 24 Parganas, Purba Bardhaman and Nadia districts. It is also investigating how the two contacted the infection.

The Union health ministry said on social media that it has assured the West Bengal government of comprehensive technical, logistical and operational support in the matter.

The Union health minister said that a national joint outbreak response team has been deployed to support the state government in containing the infections and for public health measures.

The national response team comprises experts from Kolkata’s All India Institute of Health and Public Hygiene, the National Institute of Virology in Pune, the National Institute of Epidemiology in Chennai, All India Institute Of Medical Sciences in Kalyani and the Union environment and forest ministry’s wildlife department.

While the last outbreaks of the Nipah virus were in West Bengal in 2001 and 2007, the last reported outbreak of the disease in the country was in Kerala in August.

The Delhi High Court on Monday told authorities in the national capital to ensure that adequate facilities are provided in night shelters to protect its occupants from the cold, The Hindu reported.

A bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia issued the direction after taking suo motu cognisance of a report in The Hindu titled “Night shelters packed, patients, kin brave the cold outside hospitals” on January 11.

The report detailed the condition of patients and their kin staying outside on the streets near All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi due to the lack of affordable accommodation.

The bench directed the court registry to file the matter as a writ petition and to implead the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, and the Delhi government as respondents, Live Law reported.

“What have you done?” the newspaper quoted the bench as asking the authorities when it heard the matter briefly on Monday. “If any one of us is required to live a night there, we don’t know what will happen. Be sensitive.”

The bench asked the authorities to compile complete information not only about the night shelter referred to in the report, but also on the situation prevailing in the shelters across the city.

“We also expect that the authorities concerned shall take adequate steps to ensure that residents of the shelters can save themselves from the chilling cold,” The Hindu quoted the court as saying.

The matter was listed for further hearing on Wednesday.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday wrote another letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, drawing the poll panel’s attention to “serious procedural lapses” in the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in the state, The Telegraph reported.

The chief minister accused the Election Commission of harassing voters and endangering democratic rights through the voter roll revision process.

The state’s draft electoral rolls were published on December 16. They showed that more than 58 lakh voters were removed after being marked dead, shifted or absent.

The deletion from the draft roll is provisional and citizens can object to their names being removed from the list. Citizens whose names have been dropped from the list can file their claims and objections.

In her letter on Monday, Banerjee said that during the claim hearings, voters were submitting documents to support their claim of eligibility, but were often getting no clear acknowledgment or receipt, The Telegraph reported.

She said that no acknowledgment being issued was depriving voters proof of having made the submission and was placing them “at the mercy of internal record-keeping deficiencies”.

Subsequently, at the verification stage, “these documents are reported as ‘not found’ or ‘not available on record’, and on that basis, names of electors are being deleted”, she said in the letter.

Banerjee said that using artificial intelligence tools for digitising the 2002 electoral rolls had led to errors in voter details. This had led to several genuine voters being categorised as “logical discrepancies”, The Indian Express reported.

She accused the poll panel of disregarding its own statutory processes that had been followed after 2002.

“Why should the process revert to 2002?” she asked. “Does this imply that all revisions carried out over the intervening years were illegal?”

Banerjee said that several discrepancies had been minor, such as “Kr” and “Kumar”, “Shaik” and “Sk” or a person’s age, and should be resolved without calling voters for hearings, The Telegraph reported.

This was her fifth letter to the chief election commissioner since November.

West Bengal is expected to head for Assembly elections in the three to four months.

Besides West Bengal, the special intensive revision of electoral rolls is underway in 11 other states and Union Territories.

In Bihar, where the revision was completed ahead of the Assembly polls in November, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll published on September 30.

Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll.

Also read: Single mother, BJP MLA, Marwari trader: The Bengal voters on EC’s SIR radar

A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday delivered a split verdict on the constitutionality of an amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Act mandating prior permission from the government to begin an investigation against a public servant under the law, Bar and Bench reported.

Justice BV Nagarathna held that the provision, Section 17A of the Act, contravenes the Constitution. On the other hand, KV Viswanathan upheld the provision, but read it down to state that sanction should depend on the recommendation of the Lokpal or Lokayukta, Live Law reported.

The Lokpal at the Centre and the Lokayukta at the state level are anti-corruption ombudsmen.

On account of the divergent views, the court directed that the case be placed before the chief justice, who could direct another bench to decide on the questions at hand.

The amendment to the Act requiring prior sanction was introduced in 2018. Earlier, such an approval was necessary only for inquiries against officials above the rank of a joint secretary.

Nagarathna said that the requirement of prior sanction contradicted the objective of the Act, Bar and Bench reported. “This section is nothing but an attempt to resurrect the section, which was struck down and is thus an attempt to protect the corrupt,” she said.

However, Viswanathan said that an independent entity that is free from the executive must decide on granting sanction. “Section 17A is constitutionally valid subject to the condition that the sanction must be decided by the Lok Pal or the Lok Ayukta of the state,” Live Law quoted him as saying.

Striking down the provision altogether would amount to “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”, Viswanathan said, adding that unless honest public servants were protected from frivolous investigation, “policy paralysis” would set in.

The Supreme Court passed the split verdict in response to a petition by non-governmental organisation Centre for Public Interest Litigation.

Lawyer Prashant Bhushan, representing the organisation, had contended that the requirement for prior sanction reintroduced a protection that had already been struck down by the Supreme Court in the cases of Vineet Narain vs Union of India and Subramaniam Swamy vs Director, CBI, according to Live Law.

Bhushan argued that Section 17A had the same flaw, as it allowed members of the executive to decide if an inquiry could be launched, leading to a conflict of interest.

However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Union government, argued that the previous judgements did not bar all forms of prior sanction. He argued that the Vineet Narain and Subramaniam Swamy cases were about reasonable classification under Article 14, which pertains to the right to equality, Live Law reported.

Mehta argued that Section 17A protects official decision-making and is intended to prevent frivolous cases that could lead to policy paralysis.

Ladakh activist Sonam Wangchuk cannot be seen in the videos relied upon by the authorities as grounds to detain him under the National Security Act, Bar and Bench quoted lawyer Kapil Sibal as having told the Supreme Court on Monday.

The submission was made before a bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Prasanna Varale, which is hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Wangchuk’s wife Gitanjali Angmo. She has argued that her husband’s detention is illegal and violates his fundamental rights.

Wangchuk was arrested in Leh on September 26, two days after four persons were killed in police firing during protests seeking statehood for Ladakh and its inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. He was later taken to a jail in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur.

The bench on Monday said that it will not delay hearing the matter as it was a habeas corpus petition involving personal liberty, despite Solicitor General Tushar Mehta not being available because of personal reasons.

Sibal, representing Angmo, argued that four videos relied upon by the authorities for detaining Wangchuk had not been supplied, making it impossible for the activist to effectively contest the matter.

Sibal said that there was a time gap between the events that had been relied upon by the authorities and the detention order against Wangchuk, Bar and Bench reported.

He said that several documents that had been referred to were from events beginning in March 2024 but the detention order was passed on September 26, 2025.

The lawyer was quoted as having said that according to the detention order, the real trigger were the events of September 10, 2025, September 11, 2025, and September 24, 2025. But the videos relating to those dates had not been supplied to the activist.

The authorities had instead relied on older videos such as one from June 8, 2025, or May 25, 2025, where it was alleged that Wangchuk had incited people to engage in strikes and non-cooperation movements, Bar and Bench quoted Sibal as saying.

If a video from June 8, 2025, had been the basis of the detention, then Wangchuk should have been taken into custody on June 9, 2025, Sibal said.

The authorities had ignored Wangchuk’s speech in which he spoke about non-violence, Bar and Bench quoted Sibal as saying.

The videos of September 24 had been recorded after the violence and were being used against the activist, he alleged, adding that Wangchuk was not present in those videos.

The hearing will continue on Tuesday.

On September 24, police firing and violence broke out in Leh. Demonstrators clashed with and threw stones at the police, and set fire to the Bharatiya Janata Party office and a police vehicle.

The Union government has claimed that the violence was incited by Wangchuk’s “provocative statements”.

In October, Angmo filed the petition before the Supreme Court challenging his detention. She has contended that the order relied on “stale, irrelevant and extraneous” first information reports, many of which did not name Wangchuk.

Also read: Nine false claims about Sonam Wangchuk – and why they fall flat

The Maharashtra State Election Commission on Monday directed the state government to refrain from disbursing funds under the Ladki Bahin scheme in advance for January, citing the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct for the upcoming civic elections, PTI reported.

The State Election Commission had received several complaints about media reports alleging that beneficiaries of the scheme would receive Rs 3,000, covering the December and January instalments, in their bank accounts before January 14 as a gift for the festival of Makar Sankranti.

The scheme provides a monthly transfer of Rs 1,500 to women aged 21 to 65 whose families earn less than Rs 2.5 lakh a year.

On Saturday, the Congress in Maharashtra also complained to the State Election Commission against a social media post by Bharatiya Janata Party leader and state minister Girish Mahajan announcing the disbursal of funds under the Ladki Bahin scheme ahead of the festival.

Makar Sankranti falls on Wednesday, a day before polling is slated to take place for 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra, including Mumbai.

On Sunday, Maharashtra Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal alleged that Mahajan’s post announcing the release of installments for December and January amounted to an attempt to influence women voters and violated the model code of conduct. The Congress alleged that the announcement amounted to an attempt to influence women voters.

Following the complaints, the State Election Commission sent a letter to Chief Secretary Rajesh Agarwal on Sunday, seeking a clarification on the allegations and sought a response within a day.

After receiving a response from Agarwal, the poll panel said in a statement that it had issued consolidated orders on November 4 about the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct for the elections in the state, The Hindu reported.

It added that the chief secretary noted in his response that development works and schemes that had started before the announcement of the elections were allowed to continue during the code of conduct period as per the provisions of the November 4 order.

“Considering this background, the regular benefits of this scheme can be given,” the newspaper quoted the State Election Commission as saying. “…but benefits cannot be given in advance; and, new beneficiaries will not be able to be selected.”

On Monday, the state Congress criticised the Mahayuti government, claiming that the leaders of the ruling party were “selfish brothers” who expected votes as a “return gift” from the beneficiaries of the scheme, PTI reported.

“These selfish brothers have no emotion,” the news agency quoted party spokesperson Sachin Sawant as saying. “They stopped the instalment for two months and disbursed the amount during the election campaign. They seek something in return. The sisters should show these selfish brothers their place as they expect a return gift in the form of votes.”

He added that the funding for the scheme is paid using the taxpayers’ money and was not the private property of those in power.

Hasan Ali spends days worrying about his father, Taher Ali.

How is the 58-year-old fending for himself in a foreign country? What might be doing in the bitter January cold? What dangers might he be facing?

In the last eight months, Taher Ali, a peasant from Assam’s Nagaon district has been forced out of India and into the no man’s land abutting Bangladesh not once – but three times.

Twice, he was sent back by Bangladesh border officials, Hasan Ali, a 31-year-old vegetable vendor, told Scroll.

Taher Ali is a “declared foreigner”, someone who has failed to prove that he is an Indian citizen before the state’s foreigners tribunals even though he has lived his entire life in Assam.

The tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies that have stripped thousands of Assam’s residents of their citizenship, many times through ex-parte orders that were passed without hearing the accused – as was the case with Taher Ali.

Those who lose their cases at the foreigners tribunals have the right to challenge their orders in the higher courts. In some instances, they have been sent to the state’s detention or holding centres. But, until May last year, they were rarely deported to Bangladesh, as a tribunal order is not proof that they are citizens of another country.

However, since May, the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Assam has repeatedly bypassed the legal process of deportation by “pushing back” declared foreigners across the border – in the dead of the night, and at gun point. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has invoked a 1950 law to justify the forced deportations.

Since November, the state government has issued orders to 22 declared foreigners to “remove themselves” from the country “within 24 hours”, leaving families with no opportunity to move court.

But with Bangladesh refusing to allow them in, people like Taher Ali are trapped in a vicious cycle of “push-backs” and returns.

Taher Ali is not alone. Scroll found that since December 19, at least seven Assam residents were forced into Bangladesh. When the Border Guard Bangladesh did not allow them in, they returned five days later – only to be forced out again. Some of them were last seen in a Facebook video from Bangladesh’s Kurigram district on December 28, shot by local mediapersons.

Four of them are now in the custody of Bangladesh police, officials in the neighbouring country said. At least one other person, apart from Taher Ali, was coerced into Bangladesh three times.

Scroll contacted the Border Security Force spokesperson and the Union ministry of home affairs, asking if declared foreigners expelled under the 1950 law were repeatedly pushed into Bangladesh, and if their nationality had been verified before. The story will be updated if they respond.

Lawyers and observers told Scroll that the Assam government’s new policy violated international and constitutional norms.

“This is the manufacturing of statelessness,” said Abhishek Saha, a doctoral student at Oxford University who researches on questions of citizenship in India. “India pushed these people toward Bangladesh, only for Bangladesh to reject them… These individuals are being tossed back and forth like tennis balls between the two nations.”

Ujjaini Chatterji, an advocate based in Delhi, said such “abrupt and arbitrary” removal of persons is in direct contravention of the Constitution of India and India’s international law obligations. “Any deportation must be preceded by nationality verification and the deported individual must be formally handed over to the official authorities of the alleged country of origin,” she said. “In the present cases of so-called pushbacks, the arbitrariness is stark.”

Hasan Ali asked why his father was being shunted back and forth between two countries. “My country has declared my father a foreigner from Bangladesh,” he said. “But Bangladesh has returned him twice. Taile amader desh kunda? Amader desh ase ki?” Then, which is our country? Do we have any country at all?

A cycle of pushbacks

In December 2009, Taher Ali was declared a non-citizen by a foreigners tribunal in Nagaon district by an “ex parte opinion”.

He spent four years in Tezpur detention centre from August 2015 to December 2019, and was then released.

In May 2025, after the Pahalgam terror attack, when the Assam government began a crackdown on declared foreigners, Taher Ali was picked up from his native village Goroimari in Nagaon and taken into police custody.

As Scroll had reported, after being picked up by the police, hundreds of declared foreigners were handed over to the Border Security Force, who forced them into Bangladesh at gunpoint. Ali was among 109 such declared foreigners taken to the Matia transit camp, India’s largest detention centre. This was corroborated by an affidavit filed by the Border Security Force in the Gauhati High Court in November.

Hasan Ali told Scroll that his father had phoned him in May, saying he had been forced out.

However, the Border Guard Bangladesh did not let Taher Ali and others into the country. “He was again brought back to India and kept at the Kokrajhar holding centre,” Hasan Ali said. “We were relieved.”

This, too, was confirmed by the affidavit filed by the BSF in the Gauhati High Court. Sixty declared foreigners were sent back by the Border Guard Bangladesh within a day, the BSF told the court. Scroll has seen the affidavit.

In September, Hasan Ali filed a petition in the Gauhati High Court, seeking his father’s release from the holding centre, their lawyer Amir Hussain told Scroll.

“On November 21, the High Court disposed of his plea saying that the 2009 tribunal opinion must first be challenged,” Amir Hussain said.

In November, Hasan Ali went to the Kokrajhar holding centre to get his father’s signature on court papers needed to challenge the FT order. That was the last time he met him.

Before they could move court, on December 17, Taher Ali and 14 others from Nagaon district were issued expulsion orders by the Assam government, asking them to leave the country in 24 hours.

The three expulsions

By the time Hasan Ali got to know of the order the next day, his father had already been whisked away from the Kokrajhar holding centre.

Hasan claimed that his father was taken 500-odd km away to Sribhumi district, formerly known as Karimganj, which borders Bangladesh’s Sylhet, and forced out on December 19.

Six days later, members of a village defence party in Sribhumi stopped seven people as they were re-entering India. Taher Ali was among them, Hasan said.

Scroll has seen the photograph taken by the village volunteers of the six men and one woman they had “captured”. It included Taher.

“They were later handed over to the Border Security Force,” Hasan Ali said.

Sribhumi district police chief Leena Doley confirmed to the media that the seven people had been detained while re-entering India. When Scroll asked for more details, Doley dodged the question, saying it is a “sensitive issue” before hanging up.

But that was not the end of it.

On December 29, Hasan Ali got a call from his father.

Taher Ali told his son that on the morning of December 28, he was put in a vehicle and taken 600 km to the other end of the state – to the South Salmara-Dhubri border and forced into Bangladesh for the third time. He asked his son to rescue him and get him out of Bangladesh.

“He does not even know how to read and write,” Hasan Ali said. “How will he manage there?”

He added: “My father is not Bangladeshi, he is Indian. He is a voter and his grandfather’s name is there in the 1965 voter rolls. All his 13 brothers and sisters are Indian. How can my father alone be a Bangladeshi?”

‘We are terrified’

Another declared foreigner forced into Bangladesh three times in the last eight months is Idrish Ali, a 45-year-old daily-wage worker from Raha town in Nagaon.

Idrish had been declared a foreigner in 2016, following which he spent three years in Tezpur detention centre.

Like many declared foreigners, who do not have much awareness of the legal process they are embroiled in, Idrish did not challenge the foreigners tribunal order in the higher courts.

“He thought his case was over after he was released,” said his 21-year-old daughter Sharjina. “He kept going to the police station every week.”

No other member of Idrish Ali’s family was served a notice by foreigners’ tribunals.

In May, the daily-wage labourer was picked up from Raha and sent to the Matia detention centre during the statewide crackdown against the declared foreigners.

According to the affidavit filed by the Border Security Force in May, Idrish Ali was among the 109 declared foreigners detained at the Matia transit camp on May 26.

A few days later, Idrish was forced into Bangladesh, Sharjina said – his first expulsion.

Like Taher Ali, he snuck back to India and was handed over to the Border Security Force, who took him to the Kokrajhar holding centre.

Since then, the family has been running around trying to release him.

“First, my mother went to the Matia detention centre, and the officials said he was not there,” she said. “Then she went to the Kokrajhar holding centre. First, they said he was not there. Then they asked to obtain an order copy from Gauhati High Court to meet him.”

The family hired a lawyer to file a case in the Gauhati High Court in June. But despite being paid, the lawyer did not challenge the tribunal order. Before he moved court, Idrish Ali had been served with expulsion orders on December 17.

He was spotted in the photograph taken by village volunteers on December 24 in Sribhumi, where he is seen standing next to Taher Ali and five other declared foreigners.

Sharjina told Scroll: “A few days later, we came to know that he had re-entered India and was caught in Sribhumi district with six others.”

Days later, the family spotted him in a Facebook video from Bangladesh’s Kurigram district, Sharjina told Scroll.

A Bangladeshi journalist, Mostafizur Rahman Tara, told Scroll that Idrish Ali was among three people detained by the Border Guard Bangladesh on December 28 for entering the country without valid documents.

She said the family had “no idea where he is now”.

“Everyone at home is terrified after he was seen at the Sribhumi border once and later in Bangladesh near the Dhubri border. That is when we realised he had been pushed across a third time,” Sharjina said. “I don’t understand why he was taken from one border to another.”

The 1950 law

In both these cases, the Assam government has justified the “push-backs” by invoking a 1950 law – the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950.

The law was enacted soon after 1947 as popular discontent grew in Assam over the growing migration of Partition refugees into Assam from East Pakistan.

Since November, the Assam government has used the law to issue expulsion orders to 22 people – and effectively bypass foreigners’ tribunals and the Centre’s own deportation rules.

In Taher Ali’s case, the Nagaon district administration invoked a new “standard operating procedure” under the law, which was approved by the Assam cabinet in September.

Ujjaini Chatterji, the advocate, said the 1950 law was enacted in a vastly different historical and geopolitical context in South Asia, before foreigners tribunals were set up. “Moreover, the Act does not contemplate, nor does it authorise, arbitrary expulsions without due process,” she said.

Political scientist Sanjib Baruah, too, argued that a “lot has happened in South Asia since the passage of the law”.

He said: “It is absurd to argue that an executive official can now circumvent the procedure established by [foreigners tribunals] and the judicial appeals that their decisions are subject to, and use a 75-year-old law meant to deal with migrants from a region that no longer exists (East Pakistan), and push someone to the ‘no-man’s land’ because the person in his opinion is a foreigner.”

Chatterji pointed out that the law permits expeditious “removal” only of those people “whose presence in Assam is detrimental to the interests of the general public of India, any section thereof, or any Scheduled Tribe in Assam”.

“Neither the notices nor any clear reports establish that the expelled persons were detrimental to the interests of India,” she said.

She added that the 1950 act cannot override existing mechanisms and laws dealing with deportation of foreigners. “The guidelines clearly mandate that before any lawful deportation, a detailed enquiry must be conducted into the nationality of the suspected persons,” she said. “This is not being done.”

After former Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Arun Prakash said that he and his wife had been asked by the Election Commission to prove their eligibility during the special revision of electoral rolls in Goa, the poll panel clarified on Monday that the enumeration forms submitted by the retired officer were missing mandatory information, reported PTI.

Prakash, who settled in Goa after retirement, has been marked “unmapped” on the draft rolls that were published on December 16, according to The Indian Express.

The state has over 1.8 lakh “unmapped” voters. These are persons whose names appear on the draft voter list but were not found on the 2002 rolls, when the last special intensive revision was held. They will have to attend hearings with relevant documents to retain their name on the final voter list that is due to be published on February 14.

On Sunday, Prakash said that he and his wife, Kumkum, had received notices from the Election Commission, despite a booth-level officer visiting their home thrice. The retired officer said that the BLO had not asked for additional information during the enumeration phase.

The 82-year-old also highlighted that he and his wife, 78, have been asked to appear before Election Commission officials on two different dates at a location 18 km away from their residence.

In a post on Monday, Prakash said that the poll body could consider revising the form for the process to capture more relevant information, such as “occupation” and “location at last SIR”.

He also suggested that the Election Commission employ “full-time, fully trained youth as BLOs” to better interact with citizens and raise awareness.

2/2 For @ECIVEEP (b) Employ full time, fully trained youth as BLOs empowered to interact with citizens & vet docs; (c) INFORM THE PUBLIC that there exists an option to upload docs on EC website; (d) Do not forget the migrant labourer, away from home & unable to produce docs.

— Adm. Arun Prakash (@arunp2810) January 12, 2026

On Monday, the Election Commission said that the enumeration forms submitted by Prakash “did not contain the mandatory particulars relating to the previous SIR”, including the name of the elector, the electors’s photo identity card number, the name of the relative, the name and number of the Assembly Constituency, part number and serial number in the electoral roll, reported PTI.

These discrepancies meant the electoral officials were unable to establish an automatic linkage between the submitted enumeration form and the existing electoral roll database, said Electoral Registration Officer Medora Ermomilla D'Costa.

Apart from the unmapped voters, more than 1 lakh names were deleted from the draft electoral rolls in Goa after being marked dead, shifted or absent.

Besides Goa, the special intensive revision of electoral rolls is underway in 11 other states and Union Territories.

In Bihar, where the revision was completed ahead of the Assembly polls in November, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll published on September 30.

Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll.

Also read: Single mother, BJP MLA, Marwari trader: The Bengal voters on EC’s SIR radar

United States President Donald Trump on Monday said that a tariff ​rate of 25% will be imposed on goods from countries doing business with Iran. The action against Tehran came as anti-government protests in the West Asian country entered their third week.

While China is Iran’s largest trading partner, India has been among the top five countries with which Tehran has had trade ties in recent years.

Without a trade deal with Washington, Indian goods are already facing a combined US tariff rate of 50%. A 25% so-called reciprocal duty was imposed on August 7, followed by an additional 25% punitive levy on August 27.

On Monday, Trump said on social media: “Effective immediately, any country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America. This order is final and conclusive.”

Earlier on Monday, Trump had threatened to intervene militarily if Tehran killed protesters, the BBC reported. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt also said that military options, including air strikes, were still “on the table”, BBC reported.

The protests in Iran, which began on December 28, were initially focused on discontent about rising inflation. However, they later expanded in scope as protesters in more than 100 cities demanded an end to clerical rule.

The authorities in Iran have accused the US and Israel of inciting unrest. The government snapped internet access and telephone lines on Thursday, largely cutting off the country from the outside world.

More than 640 protesters have been killed in the past three weeks in Iran, the Associated Press reported. Nearly 10,700 persons have been arrested, CNN reported. The reports have attributed the numbers to US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Tehran was ready to negotiate with the US based on “mutual respect and interests”, CNN reported.

“As I have said repeatedly, we are also ready for negotiations – but fair and dignified negotiations, from an equal position, with mutual respect and based on mutual interests,” Araghchi told a group of foreign diplomats in a televised meeting in Tehran.

The foreign minister also warned that Iran remained prepared for war but dismissed a preemptive strike. “The reason is clear: the best way to prevent war is to be prepared for war, so that our enemies do not once again fall into miscalculation,” he added.

India’s trade with Iran

Since the reimposition of US sanctions on Iran in 2019, New Delhi’s trade with Tehran contracted sharply by 87%, falling to $2.3 billion in 2024 from $17.6 billion in 2019, Moneycontrol reported.

India’s import of mineral fuels, which earlier accounted for more than 90% of the bilateral trade, has plummeted by 99% since 2019.

India still imports about $1 billion worth of goods from Iran. But organic chemicals, edible fruits and nuts now account for more than 80% of the imports, replacing energy as the primary category.

New Delhi’s exports to the West Asian country also declined significantly, down 68% from 2018, according to Moneycontrol. In 2024, India exported $1.3 billion worth of goods to Iran, compared with $3.9 billion in 2019 and $5.4 billion in 2013.

When I returned to my village of Hemisshukpachan in Ladakh in November after a hiatus of three months, I noticed a new architectural trend: steel roofing.

The next day, at a meeting in the community hall called by an NGO to distribute solar lamps, some villagers were in a rush to leave because there were workers at their homes installing steel roofs. This sparked a discussion about this new trend. There was a general agreement that all the residents should install steel roofs.

The impetus to build these roofs had come from the unprecedented rainfall we received in August. Leh recorded 80 mm of rain – roughly 930%. The flat mud roofs of the region’s traditional houses could easily withstand the historical average annual precipitation (both rain and snow) of around 100 mm. But my neighbours thought that steel roofing was necessary to face the changing weather patterns.

As a result, Ladakhis were spending their early winter getting ready for the summer instead of the phenomenon we have historically spent our time preparing for – the cold.

As I see it, the loosening ties of Ladakhis with the cold is responsible for the region’s new obsession with heritage preservation – and even our political anxiety.

Till the early 2000s, Ladakh’s winters (October-March) were harsh. Agricultural activities came to a halt. Everything froze: the rivers, streams, water canals, grassland and land with moisture in it. Precipitation mostly came in the form of snowfall. “In the past, winters were very cold and snowfall was abundant,” an octogenarian fellow villager told me.

In the shaded parts of the village, the early winter snow was transformed into sheets of ice. As residents shovelled the snow off their roofs, towers of sleet grew in the alleyways. In the winter, some parts of the village used to be covered permanently with ice.

These tough conditions entailed that there was always the looming danger of food and fuel scarcity. As a result, Ladakhis spent their summers preparing for the winter.

The summer months were used to cultivate barley and wheat (the main foodgrains), collect apricots and vegetables (both wild and cultivated) for dry preservation, and to secure essentials not found locally, such as salt, from distant outposts.

Talking to my Buddhist neighbours about the time before Ladakh joined the Republic and a couple of decades after it became part of India, they told me many stories about the cruel, cold months. The most prominent theme was food scarcity.

By mid- to late winter, pantries became empty, and people went to seek loans of grain from relatively wealthy neighbours. Stories of people venturing to the nearby monastery to steal from the granary are also remembered. Young men went on expeditions to hunt wild sheep, goats and birds for subsistence. People slept early so they would be under the covers during the freezing nights.

The local architecture reflected the necessity of tackling the frosty conditions. The older houses have thick walls that act as thermal insulation. Homes had a special winter chamber, called yokhang, on the ground floor. This floor also had rooms for the livestock. Moving nearer to the animals provided the much-needed warmth.

The preparations made for the dreary winter months underscore the intimate relationship Ladakhis had with the cold. Living in Ladakh meant getting ready, tackling and facing the icy circumstances head-on.

Ladakh’s social institutions reflect this. Elaborate systems of community cooperation in villages – norms related to water sharing, social groups that assist in ploughing, funerals and weddings – were the safety nets. A powerful village-level decision-making institution headed by the goba (chief) and representing all the households had authority on important aspects like water sharing.

Social practices were designed to negotiate the frigid landscape. For instance, polyandrous marriage, in which a woman had several husbands, controlled the population. In many families, younger siblings became monks and nuns, which secured their survival in monasteries with generous endowments.

One bit of small talk in Ladakh is “Thogs babs se rag, ta” (the warm has descended). Essentially, Ladakhis, at both the individual and collective level, had a fundamental purpose in this world – to survive the cold environment.

But geopolitics-related increase in military deployment, development programmes and tourism slowly began to upend this purpose. Food and fuel also became available from the civil administration and the military, which provided employment to Ladakhis.

Life became easier. But it made a social world designed to negotiate coldness inconsequential. Practices like agro-pastoralism, settlement patterns, mud buildings, mud stoves, livestock and much more became anachronistic.

The upending of Ladakh’s social world produced a sense of crisis. This became evident in the rush to preserve traditional architecture, pottery, metal works, dress, languages, festivals, monasteries, stupas, water-mills, heirloom seeds, animals, agricultural practices, water distribution systems, the institution of goba and even villages (which were being depopulated by outmigration).

The region now has an abundance of heritage-preserving individuals and organisations.

The looming planetary ecological crisis that has widespread public acknowledgement in the region adds another dimension to the threats. For example, the majority of families in Kulum abandoned their village due to water scarcity. After the 2010 floods, the village spring, the main source of water, dried up.

Due to rising temperatures, glacier-lake outburst floods (GLOF) have become frequent. A prominent example is the 2014 Gya village GLOF. Studies have shown a significant increase in temperature in Ladakh and neighbouring regions of around 1.6 degrees celsius in the last century, with winters heating at an increased rate.

All of these processes portray Ladakhi people as endangered. This atmosphere of risk underpins the recent political movement in Ladakh.

The sense of crisis in contemporary Ladakh is fundamentally an altered relationship with coldness, which provided a purpose to live. This relationship with the coldness is deeply ingrained in the social psyche of Ladakhis. These broken ties with frigidity finds articulation with the help of common discourses of heritage protection, tribal rights, and local governance.

If all the important heritage items and sites are protected, if all the tribal rights are recognised, if the region is empowered through extension of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution and even statehood, the question is how do we live with our changed relationship with coldness on a dangerously warming planet even while enjoying modern amenities.

Steel roofs are only a temporary answer.

Padma Rigzin is a social anthropologist from Ladakh.

This is the first of a two-part series on Ladakh.

The Shiv Sena on Monday moved the Bombay High Court against the nomination of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) candidate and ex-mayor Kishori Pednekar in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections for allegedly suppressing details about the cases against her, PTI reported.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is the governing civic body for Mumbai.

Susie Shah, a spokesperson for the Shiv Sena faction led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, mentioned the petition before a bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad, and sought an urgent hearing.

The bench, however, refused the request, noting that there were only a few days left for the elections. The High Court added that the petition would be taken up after the polls.

The elections for 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra, including the BMC, will be held in a single phase on Thursday. The results will be declared on January 16.

Pednekar had submitted her nomination form to contest the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections from Ward 199 (Central Mumbai), PTI reported.

In her petition, Shah sought a direction from the court to the returning officer to declare the form submitted by the former mayor as “illegal, invalid and improper”, and to reject it.

She claimed that Pednekar, in her affidavit, had hidden details of five first information reports filed against her in several police stations of Mumbai during her tenure as mayor, the news agency reported.

The FIRs include one pertaining to an alleged fraud committed during the Covid-19 pandemic, the petition claimed.

Shah alleged that the Uddhav Sena candidate had grossly misused the electoral process by submitting a “false and misleading” nomination form and affidavit, adding that she had no moral right to contest the elections.

SC extends timeline to complete polls

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Monday extended by two weeks the timeline to complete the process for the local body elections in Maharashtra, PTI reported. These elections are for all local bodies in the state, including the zilla parishads, panchayats and municipal corporations.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joyamalya Bagchi issued the order after the State Election Commission, represented by advocate Balbir Singh, said that it had filed an interlocutory petition seeking an extension by 10 days from January 31.

Singh said this was needed as elections were yet to be held for some zila parishads and panchayats.

On September 16, the Supreme Court criticised the State Election Commission for its failure to adhere to an earlier timeline set by it to conduct the local body elections and set January 31 as the final deadline.

The elections in 27 municipal corporations, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, 243 nagar parishads and 289 panchayats, had been stalled since 2022 amid a case in the Supreme Court pertaining to reservations for the Other Backward Classes.

This has meant that most urban and rural bodies in the state have been operated without elected representatives. The terms of these representatives for various bodies ended between 2020 and 2022.

China reiterated its claims on the Shaksgam Valley, saying that the infrastructure projects undertaken by its government in the disputed region were “beyond reproach”. This came two days after New Delhi stated that it reserved the right to take necessary measures to safeguard its interests in the region and that it was Indian territory.

The Shaksgam Valley is a disputed territory historically part of Jammu and Kashmir, which Pakistan ceded to China in 1963. India has not recognised this agreement. New Delhi has also repeatedly objected to the infrastructure projects being undertaken there by Beijing.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said that the area was part of “China’s territory”. She also reiterated that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was an economic initiative aimed at local economic and social development that will improve livelihoods. Read on.

United States President Donald Trump posted an image on social media declaring himself the “acting president” of Venezuela. The digitally altered image was captioned: “Acting President of Venezuela, Incumbent – January 2026”.

This comes after a US military operation in the South American country on January 3, during which Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were abducted. After Maduro’s capture, Venezuela’s Supreme Court ordered Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez to immediately assume the role of acting president.

However, hours after the military operation, Trump said that the US will run Venezuela and tap its huge oil reserves. Read on.

The Supreme Court sought the Election Commission’s response on pleas by Trinamool Congress MPs alleging procedural irregularities during the special intensive revision of voter rolls in West Bengal. While the poll panel sought two weeks to file its response, the bench granted it a week.

The pleas by Rajya Sabha MPs Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen will be heard next on January 19.

O’Brien has alleged that booth-level officers were receiving directions on platforms like WhatsApp instead of formal means, making it difficult to establish any audit trail of the process. Sen alleged that orders passed as part of the process were arbitrary, thereby leading to the deletion of eligible voters. Read on.

The Election Commission stated that the enumeration forms submitted by a former chief of naval staff, who has been asked to prove his eligibility in the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Goa, were missing mandatory information. Former Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Arun Prakash and his wife have been marked “unmapped” in the draft rolls published on December 16.

The retired officer said that he had received the Election Commission notice despite a booth-level officer visiting their home thrice. He added that the Booth Level Officer had not asked for additional information during the enumeration phase.

On the other hand, the poll panel stated that Prakash’s forms “did not contain the mandatory particulars relating to the previous SIR”, including the name of the elector, the elector’s photo identity card number, the name of the relative, the name and number of the Assembly Constituency, part number and serial number in the electoral roll. Read on.

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On November 12, the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare announced the draft Seeds Bill, 2025, a proposed legislation for quality, sale and certification of seeds.

The bill seeks to “regulate the quality of seeds”, “curb the sale of spurious seeds”, and “liberalise import of seeds” while “protecting the rights of the farmers”, the agriculture ministry stated in a press release. Ajai Rana, Chairman of the Federation of Seed Industry of India, which represents multinational seed companies in the country, welcomed the draft bill, calling it “a timely and much-needed step toward modernising India’s seed regulatory framework.”

However, critics of the bill argue that it ultimately favours seed companies over farmers. They also argue that it is heavily centralised, undermining the authority of state governments.

Researchers and industry experts have long demanded reforms to the Seeds Act of 1966 to address changes in the commercial seed trade over the last six decades. Currently, the Seeds (Control) Order, 1983, under the Essential Commodities Act, helps circumvent the deficiencies of the ageing Seeds Act.

There have been prior attempts by both the United Progressive Alliance and National Democratic Alliance governments to pass new legislation to regulate commercial seed trade in the country in 2004 and 2019, respectively.

New provisions

One of the main new provisions in the bill is the mandatory printing of QR codes or labels on seed packets, which discloses information about seed health, expected seed performance, and producer certification. It can be generated through the Centralised Seed Traceability Portal, a central government entity for tracking seed production and distribution. “If the system functions properly, it can improve seed quality control in the country,” said Malavika Dadlani, the former Joint Director (Research) at the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi.

Dadlani also welcomed the “pro-farmer” provision for conducting evaluation trials to assess the Value for Cultivation and Use of seed varieties. “Varietal traits and expected performance must be tested by accredited centres and disclosed to farmers,” she said.

However, Kavitha Kuruganti, founder of ASHA-Kisan Swaraj, a volunteer-driven network of farmers, argues that there is a consolidation effort for large seed companies within the bill. She points to the proposed Central Accreditation System, which would allow multinational seed companies to operate across states once accredited by the central government, thereby reducing checks for the “ease of business”. “I wouldn’t hesitate to say that this provision hasn’t emerged from the law ministry and has come from one of the seed industry bodies,” she added, about the ‘ease of business’ provision.

Erosion of state authority

The revised seed institutional architecture as per the draft Seeds Bill, 2025, proposes a 27-member Central Seed Committee and a 15-member State Seed Committee for each state government. While the 1966 Act provided for 22 state members in the Central Seed Committee, the new bill proposes only five.

The proposed composition of the Central Seed Committee is imbalanced, according to Dadlani. “Ideally, each state should have representation; if not, at least three member states from each geographic zone must be included by rotation, keeping the agricultural areas and crops in consideration,” she said. It is crucial to bring decision-making down to the appropriate level, Kuruganti adds.

“What is happening right now in Indian agriculture, not just in the sphere of seeds, almost all decisions are being taken by the union government,” Kuruganti said. “But when farmers are in a crisis, the first government to bear the brunt of any protests or resistance or even having to provide monetary compensation, is the state government.”

The new bill proposes seed price regulation during emergencies, but again, the onus lies with the union government. “The opinion of states should be sought in the matters of regulating seed prices,” Dadlani said.

The increasing seed prices, particularly for vegetables and certain high-value crops, have put pressure on farmers, says Kuruganti. “Seed prices must be regulated outside of emergencies so that we can reduce the cost of cultivation for farmers and keep it reasonable,” she added.

The unregulated seed prices are very apparent in the industry’s growth over the last few decades, Kuruganti shared. “The value of the seed industry has grown from about Rs 4,000 crores two decades ago Rs 60- 70,000 crores,” she said. The market share of the formal seed sector has remained the same during this period. According to a recent pan-India study, the overall contribution of formal seed sector has increased from 45% to 54% from 2016 to 2018.

“When it is clear that somebody else is profiteering at the expense of farmers, any new statute should think about regulating prices,” Kuruganti said. It will also force the regulator to develop a formula to set the price range, thereby bringing transparency to the costs incurred by seed companies during seed production, including the payments to contract seed multiplying farmers. “It will naturally shed light on the exploitation of seed multiplying farmers in the country,” she said.

Discrepancies with existing act

The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2001, is one of the foundational seed-related legislations in the country. It is a statutory framework India crafted to protect farmers’ intellectual property rights when it became a founding member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1995.

According to the draft Seeds Bill, 2025, it shall apply to every seed dealer, distributor, and producer who is not a farmer. The legislation will not restrict the right of the farmer “to grow, sow, re-sow, save, use, exchange, share or sell his farm seeds of any kind or variety registered under this Act.”

However, the definition of ‘farmer’ in the new bill differs from the Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act. In the draft Seeds Bill of 2025, a farmer is defined as “any person who (i) cultivates crops by cultivating the land himself; or (ii) cultivates crops by directly supervising the cultivation of land through any other person; or (iii) conserves and preserves, severally or jointly, with any other person any wild species or traditional varieties and adds value to such wild species or traditional varieties through selection and identification of their useful properties.”

Kuruganti argues that the definition should be presented verbatim from the Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, where it explicitly covers different farmer-producer organisations and cooperatives. “The definition of farmer in the singular (in the new bill) leads to problems where community institutions, including Self-Help Groups (SHGs), farmers’ cooperatives, and community seed banks are in danger of being criminalised in this act,” she said.

“Farmer producer organisations are registered under the Companies Act that sell seeds keeping a profit margin; it is justified that they must do so under a brand name and [that they are regulated],” Dadlani shared.

Also, the closer the seed producer and the seed consumer are, the lesser are the chances of quality compromise, Kuruganti added

Punishment and compensation

The new bill introduces graded penalties, with punishment for trivial, minor, and major offences such as the sale of non-registered seeds, ranging from a written notice to a fine of Rs 30 lakh and the cancellation of registration.

“Apart from hiking penalties, it may be more pertinent that the exact quantum of punishment be decided based on the merit of each case and be adjudged by an authorised person/ panel, as is done in a court of law,” Dadlani said.

Kuruganti also proposes an adjudication committee, including farmer representatives, to take cognisance of offences and dispense justice.

Currently, the legislation lacks provisions for compensation. A seed compensation fund set up by both the central and state governments would help alleviate losses incurred by farmers, according to Kuruganti. “Such a fund could also receive the penalties collected for offences under the Act, which could then provide compensation to farmers,” she said.

What is next for the bill?

According to Dadlani, “Its [The Seeds Bill] implementation will ensure quality seeds of the best varieties available to farmers at competitive prices, and will discourage unscrupulous and fly-by-night seed companies,” she said.

However, Kuruganti considers the proposed statutory framework to be inadequate to protect farmers’ interests. “We will only support a statute that is farmer-centric, upholds the constitutional authority of state governments, and supports community seed systems that have been the backbone of India’s food security and sovereignty over the last seven to eight decades,” she added.

Meanwhile seed industry leaders believe that the Seeds Bill, 2025, deserves to be passed. “It is futuristic, inclusive, may create ease of doing business by reducing the burden of compliance, while safeguarding the interest of farmers and researchers’ rights, focusing on quality seeds, rationalising the offences and penalties, and harmonising the seed regulatory system across the country,” said RK Tripathi, Director at the National Seed Association of India.

The public feedback period for the bill came to a close on December 11. The bill is expected to be introduced to the parliament for cabinet approval in early 2026.

This article was first published on Mongabay.

China on Monday reiterated its territorial claims on the Shaksgam Valley, saying that the infrastructure projects undertaken by its government in the region were “beyond reproach”, PTI reported.

This came two days after New Delhi stated that it reserved the right to take necessary measures to safeguard its interests in the Shaksgam Valley. India’s Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Friday that the region was Indian territory.

The Shaksgam Valley is a disputed territory historically part of Jammu and Kashmir, which Pakistan ceded to China in 1963. India has not recognised this agreement.

New Delhi has also repeatedly objected to the infrastructure projects undertaken by Beijing there.

On Friday, Jaiswal said that New Delhi has “never recognised the so-called China-Pakistan boundary agreement signed in 1963” and consistently maintained that the agreement was “illegal and invalid”.

“We do not recognise the so-called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor either, which passes through Indian territory that is under forcible and illegal occupation of Pakistan,” Jaiswal said.

He added that the entire Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh were an “integral and inalienable” part of India.

Noting that this had been “clearly conveyed” to Pakistani and the Chinese authorities several times, the spokesperson added: “We further reserve the right to take necessary measures to safeguard our interests.”

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is a major infrastructure project in Pakistan, launched in 2015 as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. It aims to enhance economic connectivity between China and Pakistan by developing a network of roads, railways, pipelines and energy projects.

Responding to Jaiswal’s remarks at a press briefing in Beijing on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said that the area mentioned by New Delhi was part of “China’s territory”, PTI reported.

“China’s infrastructure activities in its own territory are beyond reproach,” the news agency quoted Mao as saying.

She noted that China and Pakistan had signed an agreement that has determined the border between the two countries since the 1960s. These are the rights of Pakistan and China as sovereign states, she said.

Mao also reiterated that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was an economic initiative aimed at local economic and social development that will improve livelihoods, PTI reported.

“Such agreement and CPEC will not affect China’s position on the Kashmir issue and China’s position remains unchanged in this regard,” the news agency quoted the spokesperson as saying.

China has repeatedly maintained that the “Jammu and Kashmir dispute is left over from history, and should be properly and peacefully resolved in accordance with the UN Charter, relevant UN Security Council resolutions and bilateral agreements”.