The ideas Page: as india’s youth spoke up, the message from across the border — you inspire us 15 ThURSdaY, JULY 30, 2026 Journalism of CouragE MuMBAI, lATe cITy, 20 PAGeS ₹5.00 l www.indianexpress.com DA I ly f r o M : A h M e DA B A D , c h A n D I GA r h , D e l h I , j A I P u r , ko l k ATA , l u c k n o w , M u M B A I , n AG P u r , PAT n A , P u n e , vA D o DA r A reG.no. mcs/067/2018 - 20 rnI reGn. no. 1543/57 StRingEnt PRoViSionS in AMEndEd lEgiSlAtion 110 138 171 84 Happening today lVoting will be held for bypolls in Datia (MP), Bankipur (Bihar) and Manjalpur (Gujarat). Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com Business as usual By EP UNNY Tough exam leak Bill clears LS, Rahul raises police crackdown CHARgESHEEt filEd in fASt-tRACk CouRt Govt hails passage, says open to learn from experience; LoP: Shah must quit over July 20 action Leaked NEET papers took two routes out of Maharashtra: CBI probe Asad Rehman, Anonna dutt & Jatin Anand Mahender Singh Manral New Delhi, July 29 New Delhi, July 29 WrAPPing UP a two-day debate punctuated by acrimonious exchanges as the opposition slammed the government over the police crackdown on studentprotestersinDelhi,Lok Sabha Wednesday passed the stringent Public examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment bill, 2026 by a voice vote amid sloganeering. Leader of opposition rahul gandhi’s remarks against Union home Minister Amit Shah over the July 20 police action led to stormy scenes with Union minister kiren rijiju and LoP rahul Gandhi in Lok sabha. PTI politics page 6 rajya saBha passes Bill maKing insult to vande mataram a Criminal offenCe strong protests from the treasurybenches—oneofthewords he used was expunged from house records. Later, the government hailed the passage of the bill. UnionMinisterJitendraSingh, who replied to the debate, said it reflected the government’s “openness to incorporate constructive inputs, learn from experience and further strengthenthelaw”todealwith exam paper leaks. Shah, in a post on X, congratulated “every student in india”onthepassageofthebill, saying it “shields the dreams »ContinuEd on PAgE 2 Probingtheneet-Ug2026 paper leak case, the Cbi has uncovered two messaging app trails — a Maharashtra-rajasthan-haryana route and a Maharashtra-rajasthan-Kerala pathway — through which the question papers travelled. investigators are calling it a “countrywide conspiracy” involving subject experts, coaching institute operators and intermediaries, The Indian Express has learnt. in a chargesheet filed tuesday in a Delhi fast-track court, the Cbi has named 13 accused inside amid farmers’ protest, shivraj vs mp govt over proCurement 19monthsafter Manmohan Singh’sdeath, hegetsclean chitincoalcase Bengal govt to give eggs with mid-day meals from isKCon 28-year-old Gulveer singh during the men’s 10,000 m final at commonwealth Games in Glasgow. AP ex-Pm manmohan singh was summoned to face trial in 2015. From Sirsa mud ground to India’s first CWG men’s 10,000m silver Ananthakrishnan g Pritish Raj More thAn a decade after a trial court summoned former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the coal block allocation case, the Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside the order and accepted the Central bureau of investigation’s (Cbi) closure report which cleared him in the matter. Saying that the trial court had no justification for rejecting the Cbi’s closure report, a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of india Surya Kant closed the proceedings. While Singh died in December 2024, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the former PM, said though the matterhadbecomeinfructuous after his death, the trial court’s remarksagainsthimoughttobe PeLting rAin, chilly conditionsandafieldofrunnersfrom Africawithapodium-finishing history spanning over 50 years —india’s gulveer Singh was up against the weather, sporting historyandaqualityfieldatthe New Delhi, July 29 »ContinuEd on PAgE 2 New Delhi, July 29 Commonwealth games. Yet, the 28-year-old from Sirsa in UP’s Aligarh held his nerve, stuck to his race strategy and produced an impressive final burst to win silver, marking india’s first-ever Commonwealth games medal in the men’s 10,000m with a time of 27 minutes and 49.80 seconds. gulveer had, in fact, fallen behind during the race but fought back to snap at the heels of the leading pack before surging forward. Ky robinson of Australia won gold in 27:48.93, whileDavidMullarkeyoftheisle of Man took bronze in 27:50.28. the result also ended »ContinuEd on PAgE 2 IIT-B student found dead in hostel Manish kumar Pathak Mumbai, July 29 A 20-YeAr-oLD student of the indian institute of technology (iit) bombay was found dead in his hostel room late tuesday after his parents, who were unable to contact him, alerted the institute authorities. the deceased has been identified as Sohail rajkumar Sangwan, a second-year Material Science student hailing from Delhi. Sohail, who was staying on the fourth floor of iit-bombay hostel number 4, was found hanging from the ceiling fan using a bedsheet. “Powaipolicewereinformed at around 11.45pm following whichateamrushedtothecam- pus.thebodywassentforpostmortem, and a panchnama of the hostel room was conducted,” said a police officer. the incident came to light after the iit-bombay student failedtoanswerrepeatedphone calls from his parents, who live in Delhi. the family then contacted the institute authorities. »ContinuEd on PAgE 2 l ‘InFrInGemenT oF rIGhTs’: bombay hc qUashes orders IssUed beTWeen dec 2025 and earLy 2026 ‘Treated like criminals’: Externment orders quashed, accused speak of lives put on hold omkar gokhale Mumbai, July 29 For neArLY seven months, Saeed Ahmed Abdul Wahid Choudhary lived in a rented room in Mumbra, uncertain about when he would return home;AkbarhussainSayyed,a delivery agent and local politicalworker,couldnotbewithhis wife,infantdaughterandailing mother for four months; Mohammad rafiq gulam rasul Ansari fretted about not being able to meet his 68-year-old mother for months; and Firoz AbdulWahabKhanhadtomiss the birth of his second child. between December 2025 and early 2026, the four were externed bytheMumbaiPolice page 8 saeed ahmed abdul Wahid choudhary, Firoz abdul Wahab khan, akbar hussain sayyed and mohammad rafiq Gulam rasul ansari. from the city relying largely on Firs lodged against them over political protests in 2019 and 2025 on a range of issues, from the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and national register of Citizens, to the Ayodhya ram temple and Varanasi gyanvapi mosque rows, and azaan on loudspeakers plus local issues. Under Sections 56 and 58 of the Maharashtra Police Act, a person can be externed for up to two years if there is fear that they may commit offences. the four accused, with nothing common between them apart from their association with the Social Democratic Partyofindia(SDPi)–thepoliti- cal wing of the banned Popular Front of india (PFi) – moved intoasharedrentedaccommodation in Mumbra, thane district, after they were externed. over several hearings since March, the bombay high Court has questioned the basis of the police action, asking if externment — generally used against gangsters, bootleggers and habitual offenders – could be sustainedwhentheunderlyingallegationsrelatetopoliticaldissent. Setting aside Sayyed’s externment order in March, JusticenijamoddinJJamadarsaid it “infringes upon his fundamental rights” and “cannot be sustained”. on July 2, quashing the externment of Choudhary, »ContinuEd on PAgE 2 including ntA biology expert Manisha Mandhare, ntA chemistry expert Pralhad Vithalrao Kulkarni, ntA physics expert Manisha Sanjay havaldar. the others named are Shivraj raghunath Motegoankar, owner of renukai Career Centre Coaching institute in Latur; tejas harshadkumar Shah, Coo at APMA Coaching institute in Pune, and eight alleged intermediaries: Manisha Sanjay Waghmare, Dhananjay nivrutti Lokhande, Shubham Madhukar Khairnar, Yash Yadav, Mangilal biwal, Vikash biwal, Dinesh biwal and »ContinuEd on PAgE 2 no iMPACt on EXiSting ClEARAnCES Retrospective green nod: SC strikes down Centre’s order, opens window for exception 2021 Office Memorandum quashed, CJI bench says exceptions can be granted in public interest but under 1986 legislation Ananthakrishnan g New Delhi, July 29 inAunanimousruling,theSupreme Court Wednesday held that the Centre can retrospectively grant environmental clearanceforprojects“inpublic interest” under the environment(Protection)Act,1986and not through a mere administrative office memorandum. the bench of Chief Justice of india Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya bagchi and Justice Vipul M Pancholi struck down theCentre’s2021officememorandumregardingretrospective approval for projects that had already commenced construction or operation without environmental clearance. toavoiddisruptiontoexisting projects, the bench said the ruling will apply prospectively, leaving existing clearances unaffected. itclarifiedthattheSupreme Court’s earlier decisions in Common Cause and Alembic Pharmaceuticalswererendered inthecontextofprevailinglaws at the time and “do not place a clogonthepoweroftheCentral government to issue an appropriate, narrowly tailored amn- E. explained no perpetual regime The SC has held that the government must make a distinct selection of projects for the grant of post facto environmental clearance. Projects with a bearing on public interest satisfy the test of proportionality, reasonableness. estynotificationinsupervening public interest as an exception to the 2006 notification”. “the decriminalisation of regulatory contraventions underthe1986Act,throughthe Jan Vishwas Act 2023, reinforces our conclusion that the Central government has ample power under Section 3 to issue appropriate notifications, formulating amnesty schemes with regard to such classes orcategories of non-compliant projects whose sustainability is necessary to subserve larger public interest,” it said. on May 16, 2025, the bench of Justice Abhay S oka and »ContinuEd on PAgE 2