News update

The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday (May 18) ordered release of AG Perarivalan, who has served over 30 years of life term in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. A bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao invoked its extraordinary power under Article 142 to grant relief to Perarivalan. "State cabinet had taken its decision based on relevant considerations. In exercise of Article 142, it is appropriate to release the convict," the bench said. Article 142 deals with enforcement of decrees and orders of the Supreme Court and orders as to discovery, etc. On March 9, the top court had granted bail to Perarivalan while taking note of his long incarceration and no history of complaints when out on parole. The top court was hearing the plea of the 47-year-old Perarivalan seeking suspension of his life sentence in the case till the Multi Disciplinary Monitoring Agency probe is completed. When and what happened to Rajiv Gandhi years back? Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May ...

India saw over 23.5 lakh premature deaths due to pollution of all types- including 16.7 lakh fatalities caused by air pollution- in 2019, the highest among all countries globally, according to a new study published in The Lancet Planetary Health journal. The majority of air pollution related deaths- 9.8 lakh- in India were caused by ambient PM2.5 pollution- tiny pollution particles in the air that are two and one half microns or less in width, the researchers said. Another 6.1 lakh were due to household air pollution, they said. World-wide data based on pollution-related deaths:  Globally, pollution of any kind was responsible for nine million deaths in 2019- equivalent to one in six deaths worldwide- and India leads with nearly 2.4 million deaths. Of the nearly 2.4 million deaths in 2019, air pollution accounted for 16.7 lakh deaths - the highest by any country. Further, more than 5 lakh lives were lost in the country due to water pollution, followed by occupational pollution (mor...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave its nod to OBC reservation in the local body elections in Madhya Pradesh. Accepting the OBC commission report, a bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar allowed the reservation in the state-local body elections. The Court directed the Madhya Pradesh election commission to notify election local body elections in one week. The court had earlier directed the State Election Commission to issue an election program without any further delay on the basis of the wards as per the delimitation done in the concerned local bodies where the elections had become due. The State Election Commission was also asked to notify the election program without any further delay in respect of local self-government whose election(s) had become due. The top court had earlier said, "We direct the State Election Commission by way of the interim order, to issue election program without any further delay on the basis of the wards as per the delimitation done in the concerned loc...