The Bombay high court on Monday ruled that the accused, in cases transferred by the Supreme Court to Maharashtra, should be sent to jails in their respective states after they are convicted.

Four species of animals which had apparently disappeared from the neglected Valmiki Tiger Reserve have been recently discovered there. These include the grey crab-eating mongoose, a yellow-throated marten, the Himalayan serow and the hoary-bellied squirrel.

Asking the government to declare the recent flashfloods and landslides in Uttarakhand as a national calamity, BSP supremo Mayawati on Tuesday also suggested that the religious sites in the region should be redeveloped with the active support of the Centre.

The government has said that over 6,000 persons are feared dead in the floods and landslides that wreaked havoc in Uttarakhand in June. It is for the first time that the Centre has come out with statistics of those believed killed in the natural disaster that struck Uttarakahnd with such fury.

The principal Opposition BJP on Tuesday maintained that though it wants discussion in Parliament on the Food Security and Land Acquisition Bills and their passage, it insisted that the government should first ensure smooth functioning of the House as such important legislation cannot be passed in the din.

Most of the political parties, including the BJP, AIADMK, TMC, Left, SP and JD(U), on Tuesday strongly objected to parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath’s suggestion to P.J. Kurien, who was in the chair in the Rajya Sabha, to invoke Rule 255 to suspend two TDP members for the “unruly behaviour” inside the House.

The UPA government on Tuesday introduced the Rajasthan Legislative Council Bill in Parliament which proposes to create a 66-member legislative council in Rajasthan.

The CBI told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that it has found some element of criminality after analysing the tapped conversations of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia with influential persons, including corporate executives and politicians, pertaining to the 2G spectrum allocation scam case and that it can register cases on the court’s direction.

With the principal Opposition BJP on board, the government has decided to bring an amendment bill to disband the collegium system of appointing judges in the Supreme Court and high courts by replacing it with a Judicial Appointment Commi-ssion (JAC).

Merely four days after a 22-year-old girl student was allegedly stabbed in a classroom by her classmate who later committed suicide, a 22-year-old Spanish language student of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) was slapped and molested in the university campus on Sunday by her friend, a former student, who was reportedly obsessed with her, the police said. The accused has been arrested.