We’re building a brand-new studio to bring you bold ground reports, sharp interviews, hard-hitting podcasts, explainers and more. Support Scroll’s studio fund today.

The Supreme Court rescinded an order it had passed on Monday barring an Allahabad High Court judge from hearing criminal cases till he retires. A Supreme Court bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan had criticised the High Court’s Justice Prashant Kumar for an order in which he had refused to quash a criminal complaint on the grounds that a civil remedy for recovering money in a financial dispute case would not be effective.

The Supreme Court had asked Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Arun Bhansali not to assign any criminal cases to Kumar till he retires.

On Thursday, 13 judges of the High Court wrote to Bhansali, asking him to convene a full court to consider not giving effect to the Supreme Court’s directions on not assigning criminal cases to Kumar.

The Supreme Court said on Friday that it did not intend to cause embarrassment or cast aspersions on Kumar, and that it was up to the High Court's chief justice to look into the matter. Read more.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi urged his party’s government in Karnataka to investigate the alleged voter fraud in the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency. This came a day after Gandhi said that his party had spent six months examining the electoral rolls in the Assembly constituency in central Bengaluru and found discrepancies in more than 1 lakh names.

Speaking at a protest rally on Friday, Gandhi claimed that more than one Lok Sabha seat in Karnataka had been “stolen”. He added that the Congress should have won 15 to 16 seats in the state in the general election last year but secured only nine.

The Congress leader also reiterated his demand that the Election Commission release machine-readable voter rolls and videography records of elections from the past 10 years.

Modi became a “prime minister with a margin of just 25 seats”, which the Bharatiya Janata Party won by a margin of just 34,000 votes, he added. Read more.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma rejected reports that the state government has asked officials to drop foreigners tribunal cases against non-Muslims who entered the state before 2015.

Scroll had reported on Tuesday that the Assam government, citing the Citizenship Amendment Act, had asked district authorities and members of the foreigners tribunals to drop cases against persons from six communities – Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Parsi – who entered the state on or before December 31, 2014.

During a meeting on July 17, Assam’s home and political department, under which the border police and the foreigners tribunals function, directed district commissioners, police chiefs and members of the tribunals to submit an action taken report in the matter.

Addressing reporters, Sarma claimed that no special Cabinet decision was required as the Act already provides security and protection to those who entered India before 2015. Read more.

Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a plan to take military control of Gaza city, a decision that marks a significant escalation in its conflict with Palestinian militant group Hamas.

A final decision will need to be endorsed by the full Israeli Cabinet.

The plan, announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, proposed that Israel Defense Forces will prepare for taking control of Gaza city while distributing humanitarian assistance to civilians outside the combat zones.

It was also announced that any end to the war, which started in October 2023, would be based on five key principles. These principles were the disarmament of Hamas, the return of all Israeli hostages, the complete demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip, continued Israeli security control in the territory and the establishment of a new civil administration that would exclude the Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Read more.

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