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The Calcutta High Court dismissed a public interest litigation against the Election Commission’s decision to transfer several officers in poll-bound West Bengal. The court held that it found no evidence of mala fide intent in the orders.

The reshuffles were ordered after the schedule for the Assembly elections was announced on March 15. It included the transfer of the chief secretary, the home secretary and the director general of police, along with several other Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service officers.

A bench observed that courts cannot interfere with or sit in appeal over the administrative decisions of the poll panel “unless clear arbitrariness, mala fide or violation of statutory provisions is established”. Read on.

At least nine persons were killed and several others injured in a stampede at the Sheetla Mata temple in Bihar’s Nalanda district on Tuesday. Most of those who died are reported to be women.

Nalanda Superintendent of Police Bharat Soni said there was a massive crowd at the temple and that the police had no information that there would be such a rush. Residents complained that there were inadequate crowd control arrangements at the site. The district administration has closed the temple to deal with the situation.

The station house officer of the Deep Nagar police station has been suspended. Read on.

Strikes have hit an Iranian desalination plant on the Strait of Hormuz, rendering it inoperable. The desalination plant is located on the Qeshm island, located in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

It was not immediately clear when the strikes took place. However, reports of the strikes came a day after United States President Donald Trump said that the US military would “obliterate” all of Iran’s electricity plants, oil wells, the Kharg island and “possibly all” desalinisation plants if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened by Tehran.

On Tuesday, Trump urged countries that did not support the US-Israeli strikes on Iran to buy American oil and go to the Strait of Hormuz to “just take it”. He singled out Britain and France for being unhelpful in the war in Iran. Read more.

A complaint has been registered against Maharashtra minister Nitesh Rane for alleged hate speech at a procession for the Hindu festival of Ram Navami in Mumbai’s Malvani area. A resident filed the complaint at the Malvani police station on Friday, alleging that a speech the Bharatiya Janata Party leader made in the area a day earlier was “provocative, inflammatory and hurtful to Muslims”.

Videos on social media show Rane addressing the Ram Navami procession on Thursday, saying that anyone who looked at the saffron flag with ill intent would have their eyes gouged out and that he would “play marbles” with them.

Rane’s remarks came against the backdrop of tensions after members of the Hindu community attempted to hoist a saffron flag near a mosque in the area. This had allegedly led to a clash on Wednesday night. A video of the clash was widely circulated on social media. Read on.

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