The Supreme Court told the Election Commission to publish the names of 1.2 crore persons against whom the poll panel had raised “logical discrepancy” objections during the special intensive revision in West Bengal. The names should be displayed in gram panchayats, block offices and ward offices, the court said.

Logical discrepancies include a mismatch in parents’ names, low age gap with parents and cases where parents have more than six children.

The court said that persons who had received notices from the Election Commission can submit their documents or objections through booth-level agents. If the documents submitted as proof are found to be unsatisfactory, the persons should be given an opportunity to be heard, the court said.

The court also verbally observed that the Class 10 admit card issued by the state education board must be accepted as a proof in the enumeration process. Read on.

The Supreme Court told the Madhya Pradesh government to decide within two weeks on granting the sanction to prosecute Bharatiya Janata Party leader and state minister Vijay Shah for his remarks allegedly targeting Colonel Sofiya Qureshi. The court noted that the Special Investigation Team it formed in May had filed its report and had been awaiting the approval from the state government.

Colonel Qureshi was among the spokespersons during the Union government and the military's media briefings about Operation Sindoor.

Shah had said that those who had widowed the daughters of India in the Pahalgam terror attack had been taught a lesson by Prime Minister Narendra Modi “by sending the sister from their own community”. While the BJP leader had not named any person at the time, Opposition parties alleged that the minister was alluding to Qureshi. Shah had apologised, saying that “Sofiya Qureshi ji has worked rising above caste and society while fulfilling her national duty”. Read on.

The Delhi High Court quashed income tax reassessment notices issued to NDTV founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy in 2016 in connection with alleged interest-free loans advanced to their company RRPR Holdings Private Limited, the promoter company of the broadcaster. The court penalised the Income Tax department Rs 2 lakh for issuing the notices.

The reassessment proceedings stemmed from allegations relating to interest-free loans advanced to RRPR Holdings. The tax department had alleged that a loan of Rs 403.8 crore from Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited to RRPR, along with a series of share transfers between RRPR and the Roys, were “colourable transactions” intended to evade tax.

The Roys had approached the court in 2017, arguing that the reassessment amounted to a second reopening for the same assessment year. They contended that reopening the matter amounted to a “change of opinion”, which is not permitted under the law.

The bench held that the department cannot revisit matters that had already been examined during an earlier reassessment. Read on.

The Delhi High Court rejected a petition filed by expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar seeking the suspension of his 10-year jail sentence for the custodial death of the father of the complainant in the Unnao rape case.

The court said that while Sengar had spent nearly seven and a half years in custody out of the 10-year period, the delay in deciding his appeal against his conviction had been partly because of the former MLA as he had filed several applications. It also took into account Sengar’s criminal antecedents and observed that there had been no new development in the case.

In March 2020, Sengar and his brother, among others, were convicted for the death of the woman’s father in judicial custody in 2018. The killing took place after the father had been arrested allegedly at Sengar’s behest under the Arms Act. Read on.

A fisherman from Gujarat who had been in a jail in Pakistan’s Karachi died in custody on Friday even as his sentence had ended in 2022, journalist and activist Jatin Desai told Scroll. In early 2022, the fisherman inadvertently crossed into Pakistani waters. About seven or eight others who were caught with him remain in jail in Karachi, Desai said.

The activist noted that a 2008 bilateral agreement on consular access states that arrested persons should be released and repatriated to each other’s countries within one month of their nationality being confirmed and their sentences being completed. Read on.

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