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The Supreme Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh government to pay Rs 5 lakh as compensation to a man who was not released from the Ghaziabad district jail for nearly two months after getting bail. The man, booked under the Indian Penal Code and the 2021 Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, was granted bail by the top court on April 29.

However, he was not released due to a clerical error in his bail order. The man was released on Tuesday after the Supreme Court called the jail authority’s actions a “travesty of justice”.

The court on Wednesday ordered a judicial inquiry into the lapses that led to the delayed release. It observed that personal liberty “cannot be denied on useless technicalities and irrelevant errors”. Read on.

The United States’ airstrikes on nuclear facilities in Iran did not destroy its nuclear programme and only set it back by a few months, a preliminary intelligence assessment from Washington has claimed. This contradicts President Donald Trump’s statement that American attacks had “completely obliterated” Iran’s nuclear sites in Fordo, Natanz and Esfahan.

Tehran’s centrifuges were largely “intact”, unidentified officials said, adding that the enriched uranium was moved out of the sites prior to the US strikes.

The US had joined Israel’s war against Iran on Sunday. On Tuesday, Tel Aviv and Tehran agreed to a ceasefire after 12 days of hostilities, though both countries have since accused each other of violating the truce. Read on.

The Orissa High Court has ordered the Odisha government to pay Rs 10 lakh as compensation for illegally demolishing a structure belonging to a community centre. Of the Rs 10 lakh, Rs 2 lakh will be recovered from the salary of a tehsildar.

The court said it had taken serious note of the conduct of the tehsildar, “whose actions in this case reflect a steady and conscious departure from the standards expected of a responsible” official. Read on.

Shubhanshu Shukla became the second Indian to go to space as the Axiom 4 spaceflight lifted off from Florida, United States on Wednesday. Axiom 4 is a private spaceflight to the International Space Station.

The astronaut module is expected to dock at the space station on Thursday. The crew is expected to spend up to 14 days in space. The Indian Space Research Organisation reportedly paid Rs 500 crore to secure an Axiom 4 seat and training.

The other three astronauts are Peggy Whitson from the US, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary. Another Indian, Prasanth Nair, was among the three backup crew. Read on.

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