Archives for 2025

Jammu: The death toll in the Vaishno Devi landslide has gone up to 32, officials said on Wednesday, a day after disaster struck the route on the hilltop shrine in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district.

At least 20 people were injured in the landslide triggered by heavy, relentless rain, the officials said.

The pilgrimage to the shrine was suspended when the mountainside literally gave way and stones, boulders and rocks came hurtling down around 3 pm on Tuesday, catching people unawares.

The landslide struck at a point about halfway along the winding 12-km trek from Katra to the shrine.

There are two routes up to the shrine — while the yatra had been suspended on the Himkoti trek route since morning, it was going on on the old route till 1.30 pm when authorities decided to suspend it till further orders in view of the torrential rain.

 Two college students here were attacked by stray dogs on Tuesday and have been hospitalised, said a city civic body official.

The incident occurred inside the Jnanabharathi campus, near Kengeri.

The students were identified as Sujanya G J from Haveri and Rega Nikshitha from Telangana, both pursuing Integrated MSc in Economics at Dr B R Ambedkar School of Economics, situated inside the Jnanabharathi campus.

Suralkar Vikas Kishor, Special Commissioner, Health and Sanitation Department, BBMP confirmed that the students were admitted in a nearby private hospital with dog bite injuries.

They are fine now.

But I am not very sure of the exact details of the case. We are awaiting a detailed veterinary report said Kishor.

He said it was suspected that a pack of dogs attacked the students.

Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other INDIA bloc members seen wearing T-shirts featuring the name Minta Devi

Patna: The Election Commission has made me a grandma, said Minta Devi, suppressing a laugh, on a day opposition MPs led by Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra staged a demonstration in the national capital with her name and photo printed on their shirts.

If the draft electoral rolls in Bihar were to be believed, the “first time” voter, at “124 years”, could well be the oldest in the state, where more than 7 crore electors will be exercising their franchise in a couple of months.

“How can I be blamed for the goof-up? I had filled up my enumeration form online, after having waited in vain for a visit by the booth-level officer,” said the 35-year-old, whose name is now trending on social media.

However, the Siwan district administration has issued a statement, claiming that the would-be voter of the Daraunda assembly segment has been contacted and remedial steps were taken well before the anomaly made headlines.

According to a statement issued by the collectorate of Siwan, “An application was obtained from Minta Devi on August 10 for rectifying the error, to which her attention was drawn by the BLO. It will be dealt with during the claims and objections phase (of special intensive revision of electoral rolls)”.

The matter has come to light at a time when parties opposed to the ruling NDA are assailing the special intensive revision (SIR), in the Parliament as well as the Supreme Court.

Minta Devi, however, is enjoying a good laugh.

“I am thrilled that, finally, at the age of 35, I may get a chance to cast my vote. Many polls have passed since I became eligible but somehow my name never made it to the voters’ list. If the EC has made me a grandma (daadi bana diya) in the process, it is fine with me. I have nothing to fear. I had stated my year of birth as 1990, the same as in my Aadhar card. I cannot help it if in the draft rolls 1990 has been made 1900,” she told reporters.

Meanwhile, social media was left abuzz with users raising doubts over two centenarians, both women, figuring in the voters’ list for another assembly constituency.

The election officials were left coming out with statements asserting that Farzana Khatun and Asha Devi, both voters of Pirpainti assembly segment in Bhagalpur district, were, in fact, 120 years old.

The EC, however, did not respond to the claim, in a section of the media that the two centenarians were also registered as “first-time voters”.

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court has ruled that a Muslim marriage can be dissolved through ‘Mubaraat’, a form of divorce wherein couples can end their marriage through verbal mutual consent without a written agreement in place.

A bench of Justices AY Kogje and NS Sanjay Gowda made the observation while recently setting aside a Rajkot family court order which rejected a suit filed by a Muslim couple seeking dissolution of marriage by ‘Mubaraat, a form of divorce by mutual consent.

The bench sent the matter back to the family court and asked it to conclude the proceedings preferably within a period of three months.

Disagreeing with the family court’s stand that a written agreement is necessary to dissolve the wedlock, the HC, citing the Quran, Hadith and Muslim Personal Law, noted that such an agreement is not necessary if a Muslim couple seeks dissolution of marriage through mutual consent.

Following a marital discord, a young Muslim couple from Rajkot had approached the family court for declaration of their marriage to have been dissolved by ‘Mubaraat’, which according to the couple, is recognized as a form of divorce by the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937.

However, the family court rejected the suit holding the petition for declaration of dissolution of marriage by way of ‘Mubaraat’ is not maintainable in the present form, the HC order stated.

The couple challenged the order in the HC, saying the lower court had committed “an error in holding that Mubaraat Agreement is sine qua non (an essential condition) for entertaining such suit, whereas even as per Shariat, requirement of written agreement is not necessary at all”.

“It is argued that the family court has erroneously considered that agreement to part has only to be in Written Form, whereas Shariat does recognize agreement which is not even in written form,” the HC observed.

Citing religious texts and Personal Law, the HC noted “There is nothing to suggest that there has to be a written agreement of ‘Mubaraat’ nor there is a practice prevailing regarding maintaining of the register to record such agreement for mutually dissolved ‘Nikah’ (marriage).”

For the purpose of ‘Mubaraat’, the expression of a mutual consent for dissolution of ‘Nikah’ is sufficient to dissolve the marriage in itself, the bench stated.

The bench allowed the couple’s petition and set aside the lower court’s order and sent the matter back to it “to consider the family suit treating it to be maintainable and to proceed on merits”.

“With due regard to the age and future prospects of both the parties, the (high) court deems fit to direct the family court to conclude the proceedings as expeditiously as possible preferably within a period of three months from the date of receipt of the order of this court,” the bench said.

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court has ruled that a Muslim marriage can be dissolved through ‘Mubaraat’, a form of divorce wherein couples can end their marriage through verbal mutual consent without a written agreement in place.

A bench of Justices AY Kogje and NS Sanjay Gowda made the observation while recently setting aside a Rajkot family court order which rejected a suit filed by a Muslim couple seeking dissolution of marriage by ‘Mubaraat, a form of divorce by mutual consent.

The bench sent the matter back to the family court and asked it to conclude the proceedings preferably within a period of three months.

Disagreeing with the family court’s stand that a written agreement is necessary to dissolve the wedlock, the HC, citing the Quran, Hadith and Muslim Personal Law, noted that such an agreement is not necessary if a Muslim couple seeks dissolution of marriage through mutual consent.

Following a marital discord, a young Muslim couple from Rajkot had approached the family court for declaration of their marriage to have been dissolved by ‘Mubaraat’, which according to the couple, is recognized as a form of divorce by the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937.

However, the family court rejected the suit holding the petition for declaration of dissolution of marriage by way of ‘Mubaraat’ is not maintainable in the present form, the HC order stated.

The couple challenged the order in the HC, saying the lower court had committed “an error in holding that Mubaraat Agreement is sine qua non (an essential condition) for entertaining such suit, whereas even as per Shariat, requirement of written agreement is not necessary at all”.

“It is argued that the family court has erroneously considered that agreement to part has only to be in Written Form, whereas Shariat does recognize agreement which is not even in written form,” the HC observed.

Citing religious texts and Personal Law, the HC noted “There is nothing to suggest that there has to be a written agreement of ‘Mubaraat’ nor there is a practice prevailing regarding maintaining of the register to record such agreement for mutually dissolved ‘Nikah’ (marriage).”

For the purpose of ‘Mubaraat’, the expression of a mutual consent for dissolution of ‘Nikah’ is sufficient to dissolve the marriage in itself, the bench stated.

The bench allowed the couple’s petition and set aside the lower court’s order and sent the matter back to it “to consider the family suit treating it to be maintainable and to proceed on merits”.

“With due regard to the age and future prospects of both the parties, the (high) court deems fit to direct the family court to conclude the proceedings as expeditiously as possible preferably within a period of three months from the date of receipt of the order of this court,” the bench said.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said he was not upset with the sacking of K N Rajanna from the cabinet and that any notion in this regard was the opposition’s “imagination”.

During a discussion in the assembly, the opposition BJP took a swipe at the CM for “losing his ardent supporter” in his cabinet.

“K N Rajanna was your only supporter in the entire cabinet. We know that you are disturbed after his removal,” Ashoka told Siddaramaiah.

In reply, the Chief Minister said, “I am not upset. It’s all your imagination.”

Rajanna, a staunch Siddaramaiah supporter, was sacked as Cooperation Minister for his statement that the Karnataka government was responsible for the presence of alleged bogus and duplicate voters in the electoral roll.

The statement came as a big embarrassment to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, also the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha who has been alleging that the BJP came to power at the Centre with the help of bogus voters in the 2024 polls.

He had cited an example of alleged bogus voting in Mahadevapura assembly segment during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in the Bengaluru Central parliamentary constituency.

Congress General Secretary and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi | PC: PTI

Bengaluru: local citizens’ group, has written to Congress General Secretary and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi, urging her to press the Indian National Congress (INC) to pass a resolution calling for a complete arms embargo on Israel.

In the letter, the group welcomed Priyanka Gandhi’s recent remarks condemning the killing of five Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza. In a post on X earlier in the day, Priyanka described the killings as a “cold blooded murder” and “yet another heinous crime committed on Palestinian soil.” She said the “immeasurable courage” of those who “dare to stand for the truth” would never be broken by “the violence and hatred of the Israeli state.”

She also said that “in a world where much of the media is enslaved to power and commerce, these brave souls reminded us of what true journalism is,” and expressed hope that the journalists would “rest in peace.” According to Al Jazeera, the journalists, including Anas al-Sharif, were killed in what it described as a targeted Israeli strike on a tent housing reporters near Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital.

In their letter, the Bengaluru group noted that while her statements were timely, stronger action was needed. They urged her to push the Congress party to pass a resolution for a total ban on the export and transit of weapons, weapon components, and dual-use items to Israel. Direct the Karnataka state government to review and suspend contracts, grants, and schemes linked to Israeli defence companies and exports.

The group criticised Karnataka Congress leaders for attending pro-Israel events and fostering collaborations with Israeli officials and companies, citing examples such as Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao attending the “Haifa Memorial Lectures” in September 2024, and meetings between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Israeli consular officials announcing joint ventures.

The Bengaluru-based group had written to the INC last year after the Karnataka Deputy CM attended and facilitated the India-Israel Business Summit at IISc Bengaluru.

On August 6, the group wrote to Members of Parliament highlighting ties between nine Bengaluru-based companies and three Israeli arms manufacturers, Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries, and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. The companies named were Ace Inotec Manufacturing Pvt. Ltd., Alpha Design Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Alpha-Elsec Aerospace Systems, Amphenol Interconnect India Pvt. Ltd., Amphetronix Offset Interconnect Solutions Pvt. Ltd., DCX Systems Ltd., Defsys Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Indo-MIM Pvt. Ltd., SASMOS HET Technologies Ltd., and Wave Mechanics Pvt. Ltd.

The letter accused the companies of being complicit in the genocide of Palestinians and warned that India’s legacy of solidarity with Palestine was in danger. It urged MPs to support an arms embargo on Israel and cited Article 51 of the Indian Constitution, the Genocide Convention, and other legal frameworks as grounds for action.