eye MCS/204/2020-22RNINO.MAHENG2002/21899 THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE Box-Office BATTLES MUMBAI,LATECITY MAY8,2022 Is the success of recent films from the south teaching Bollywood a lesson or two? 18PAGES,`5.00 DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA STATEMENT CALLS IT DISPUTE, NOT ‘WAR’ MIDNIGHT HEARING UNSCdilutesstatement onUkraine,openswindow Hours after warrant, Bagga gets Punjab HC relief: No coercive action until May 10 Council endorses Secy-General’s efforts; India calls for easing food aid JAGDEEP SINGH DEEP & JAGPREET SINGH SANDHU MOHALI, CHANDIGARH, MAY 7 HOURS AFTER a Mohali court issued a non-bailable warrant against him, Delhi BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga was granted relief by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which held an urgent hearing late on Saturday night. “The HC has granted relief to Bagga, and has ordered no coercive action shall be taken against him till the next hearing on May 10,” said Bagga’s counsel, Senior Advocate Anil Mehta, who filed the plea seeking a stay on the arrest warrant. Bagga’s petition seeking quashing of the FIR against him is listed for May 10. Justice Anoop Chitkara of the Punjab and Haryana High Court held the hearing at his residence late on Saturday night. “Wearenotexecutingthearrest warrant till May 10," said NEW DELHI, MAY 7 Bagga in Delhi late on Friday. Praveen Khanna PunjabAdvocateGeneralAnmol Rattan Sidhu. “It is on the concessionbythestategovernment. We told the court that there was no urgency to arrest him. Hence, we can wait till Tuesday,” said Sidhu. The court in its order said, “Given the statement of the learned advocate general, Punjab, let the present application be listed along with the CONTINUEDONPAGE2 CBI RAIDS AAP MLA MAHARASHTRA GettingUS, Russiaon samepage THE FIRST UNSC statement on the conflict is seen as a starting point for talks. While there will be criticism over the language, it could offer room for diplomacy. ` 158 per kilo FIVE MEMBERS of a family, including three children, drowned in a water-filled quarry at Dombivali East in Thane district where they had gone to wash clothes on Saturday. The victims have been iden- ` 197 per kilo ` 50 per Dozen MUMBAI, MAY 7 tifiedasMeeraGaikwad(55),her daughter-in-law Apeksha Gaikwad(30),andhergrandchildren Mayuresh Gaikwad (14), Moksha Gaikwad (13) and Siddhesh Gaikwad (14). The five deceased are reportedly residents of Desle Pada. The police said the incident took place around 4 pm at Sandap village. “While the daughter-in-law and the grandmother were washing clothes, one of the children slipped and fell into the water... To save the child, the others also jumped into the water. All of them drowned,” said an officer. Those who witnessed the incident informed the police and the fire brigade. While all five CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Women and Foreign Under security cover, Correspondents press clubs pilgrims pray at temple ruins receive notice to vacate protected by ASI in Valley ABHINAYA HARIGOVIND & ANISHA DUTTA NEW DELHI, MAY 7 THE DIRECTORATE of Estate under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has sent notices to theForeignCorrespondents’Club (FCC) and the Indian Women Press Club (IWPC) to vacate the bungalows allotted to them as their tenures will soon end. The notice sent to the FCC on May 4 — with the subject ‘Retention of Government accommodationBungalowNo.AB19, Mathura Road, New Delhi allottedtoForeignCorrespondents’ Club of South Asia’ — conveyed “in principle approval of the Competent Authority for retention” of the bungalow allotted to Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia for a period up to July 31, 2022. “Youare,therefore,requested CONTINUEDONPAGE2 India’s oldest track record falls: 5000m has new champion after 30 years NIRUPAMA SUBRAMANIAN CHENNAI, MAY 7 OVER 100 pilgrims held prayers for a few hours Friday morning at the ASI-protected Martand Sun Temple ruins in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir. Guarded by security personnel provided by the district administration, the pilgrims sat on CONTINUEDONPAGE2 A video grab of the devotees at the Sun Temple ruins in Anantnag district Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani Pilani | Dubai | Goa | Hyderabad BITS Pilani, Pilani, Rajasthan 333031 Admission to Program 2022-23 now open BITS Pilani offers UG, PG, and PhD programs to over 17,000 students across its campuses in Pilani, Goa, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Dubai. BITS Pilani has been recognised as an Institution of Eminence by the Ministry of Education, Government of India in 2020. BITS Pilani has been ranked among the top 300 in QS World University Graduate Employability Rankings 2022 and within the top 8 in India. In the NIRF 2021 rankings, BITS Pilani has been ranked 3rd in Pharmacy, 17th in the University category and 26th in Engineering. In QS Asia University Rankings 2021, BITS Pilani has been ranked 194th, only private institute from India in the Asia Top 200, and at 18th in India. The Institute has secured over ₹375 crore as external research grant in the last 5 years. Recent studies have identified BITS Pilani at #3 in terms of number of Indian start-ups founded by the graduates of an institute. Currently there are 12 BITSian Unicorns and 1 Decacorn. There are over 7500 BITSian founders and co-founders of enterprises. Avinash Sable after breaking the record. SAI media BITS Pilani invites applications for admission to its 4 Semester, on-campus M.E. programs (in Biotechnology, Chemical, Civil, Communication, Computer Science, Design Engg., Embedded Systems, Manufacturing Systems, Mechanical Engg., Microelectronics, Software Systems and Sanitation Science, Technology and Management). Applications are also invited for admission to the 4 Semester M.Pharm programs for the year 2022 – 2023. NIHAL KOSHIE NEW DELHI, MAY 7 FORBAHADURPrasad,whoheld the country’s oldest track record tillSaturdaymorning,thebreaking news he received via a WhatsApp message in Varanasi endedathree-decade-longwait. ArmymanAvinashSablehad brokenPrasad's5,000metresnational record, clocking 13 minutes and 25.65 seconds in San Juan Capistrano, USA, finishing 12thinahigh-qualityfieldwhich includedtwoOlympicmedallists on Friday. For the former Asian Athletics Championship silver medallist, the race was all about the clock rather than a podium finish. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 The dress rehearsal for the Victory Day parade in Moscow on Saturday. AP tacks Saturday across Ukraine ahead of Victory Day festivities in Moscow Monday. India is a non-permanent memberof theUNSC.Initsstatement, it made two important and new formulations: First, it said that “diplomacy will be a CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Take the next big step” The computer-based online BITS HD test will be held on July 2 and 3, 2022 at various centers mentioned in the website. Eligibility Criteria A minimum of 60% for M.E./ M.Pharm. in the qualifying examination. Financial Assistance Candidates admitted will be eligible for a stipend/ fee waiver of around ₹13,400 per month. For details of campus-wise offerings, program-wise eligibility, admission modalities, HD Test, syllabus and financial assistance, please refer to www.bitsadmission.com The deadline for submission of admission form online is 1700 hrs. on May 29, 2022. Academic – Graduate Studies & Research Division BITS Pilani For further details scan the QR code or visit: www.bitsadmission.com/hd EXPRESS NETWORK LPGPRICES HIKED BY RS 50 PAGE 6 PAGES 13, 14, 15 KEDAR NATH SINGH VS BIHAR Centre to SC: Sedition law, 1962 ruling fine, no need for larger bench Remedy is to prevent its abuse on case-to-case basis, says SG in note ARMY CHIEF 3 children among five of family drown in Dombivali quarry while washing clothes EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE PAGE 11 GENERAL MANOJ PANDE PAGE 6 ` 130 per kilo SUNDAY STORY Right man at the right place SHUBHAJIT ROY TEN WEEKS into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the United Nations Security Council issued its first Presidential statement earlySaturday—adoptedbyconsensus,includingRussia—which didnotmention“war”,“conflict” or “invasion”. Instead, it referred to the conflict as a “dispute”. This is UNSC’s first unanimously adopted statement, and it is significant that it took place under US presidency — it holds the rotational presidency of the UNSC for May — and Russia came on board with the language widely perceived to be significantly “watered down.” This statement comes as Russian forces renewed their at- WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM BJP TO FIELD OBCs IN 27% OF LOCAL BODY SEATS: FADNAVIS DOUBLE MURDER: HC ACQUITS MAN WHO GOT DEATH PENALTY PAGE 4 ANANTHAKRISHNAN G. NEW DELHI, MAY 7 THE CENTRESaturday defended the penal law on sedition (Section 124A of the IPC) in the Supreme Court and said that the apex court’s 1962 verdict of a Constitutionbenchupholdingits validity was “long standing, settled”, had stood the test of time and needed no reference to a larger bench. And that instances of its abuse can’t be a justification for its reconsideration. In his written submissions to a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justiceof IndiaNVRamana on the question whether petitions challenging Section 124A (sedition) should be referred to a five-judge Constitution bench in the light of the 1962 ruling in Kedar Nath Singh vs State of Bihar, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta pointed out that the said ruling “is a Constitution bench judgment and is binding on a three-judge bench”. Hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the Constitutional validity of Section 124A, the three-judgebenchof CJIRamana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli had wondered whetherithastoreferittoafivejudge bench in the light of the 1962 ruling and asked for the views of the Centre and the petitioners on this. Attorney General K K Venugopal, too, had said there was no need for any reference and that Kedar Nath Singh is good law. Saying that no reference was CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 2 booked in Mumbai for sounding azaan on mosque loudspeakers before 6 am EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE MUMBAI, MAY 7 THE BANDRA police and Santacruz police in Mumbai have registered separate FIRs against two menworkingin two mosques for allegedly sounding the morning azaan on loudspeakers before 6 am, which is a violation of Supreme Court directives that ban noise pollution between 10 pm and 6 am. The first case relates to NooraniMasjidatBazaarRoadin Bandra (West). On May 5, a constablefromBandrapolice,whois thecomplainantinthecase,was on bandobast duty when he allegedlyheardthemorningazaan prayers being played on a loudspeaker at 5.15 am. The constable has alleged that when he spoke with Zakir Khan (45), a member of the mosque's trustee committee, Khanadmitted he was informed by the Bandra police in advance about the scheduled loudspeaker timings. Anwar Shah (28), who gave thecallforazaan,wasbookedon May 5 under sections of Indian PenalCode and theMaharashtra Police Act for flouting Supreme Court guidelines and Noise Pollution (Regulation and CONTINUEDONPAGE2