2. With the above directions, this Criminal Original Petition is closed.

24.03.2020 Index : Yes/No Internet : Yes/No SML To

1.The Third Additional District Judge (Special Court for PCR Cases), Madurai.

2.The Deputy Superintendent of Police, Samayanallur Range, Madurai District.

3.The Inspector of Police, Allanganallur Police Station, Madurai District.

Around 224 Indians stranded in the US due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown are preparing to board the first repatriation flight from San Francisco to Mumbai and Hyderabad on Saturday. In the first phase of the US-India segment of the 'Operation Vande Bharat- A homecoming', flights have been planned from San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Washington DC to New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Bengaluru. As many as 1,961 Indians are likely to be repatriated through seven flights from the four cities in the first phase, officials said. More than 24,000 Indians stranded in the US have expressed their interest in travelling back home abroad the special Air India flights. The first of the series of special Air India flight carrying 224 Indian nationals is scheduled to fly from San Francisco on Saturday night. Over the next one week, as many as 1,961 Indians are likely to be repatriated through seven flights from four different cities. According to Indian Embassy ...

After fleeing Venezuela along with millions of others amid the country's grueling humanitarian crisis, Misael Cocho made his way by bus to Peru where he got odd jobs and sent money home monthly to support his mother and his 5-year-old son. But just after Cocho landed his steadiest work so far in Lima, coronavirus cases skyrocketed. He lost his job, sold his TV to buy food and hasn't been able to wire money for months to Caracas to pay for food for the boy and Cocho's mother. The pandemic's economic fallout left many Venezuelans abroad and the relatives back home who rely on them in dire straits. And as work disappears in countries like Peru and Colombia, humanitarian groups say many Venezuelans who fled hunger are now going hungry. Cocho, 24, faces a dilemma: Should he stay in Peru in case the economy improves, or go back to Caracas where life is precarious but might not get worse? The truth is that this pandemic has really hit me hard, he said. Venezuela's population peaked at 30 ...

The first batch of 88 nurses from India arrived in the UAE to help the country's stretched healthcare professionals amid a surge in the number of COVID-19 infections in the Gulf nation that has crossed 17,000, according to media reports. The Ministry of Health and Prevention said the UAE reported 624 new cases on Saturday, taking the total number of infections to 17,417. The number of fatalities reached 185 after 11 deaths were reported on the day. The nurses, who are from Aster DM Healthcare hospitals in the states of Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra, will be put under quarantine for 14 days after which they will be assigned to various field hospitals as per requirement, the Khaleej Times reported. They arrived on a special flight at the Dubai airport on Saturday. India's Ambassador to UAE Pavan Kapoor said that this would further strengthen the long-standing friendship between the two countries. "India and the UAE are showing how a strategic partnership translates into concrete ...

An Air India flight with 163 Indians landed at the Hyderabad international airport from Kuwait on Saturday night as part of the government's Vande Bharat Mission to bring home Indian nationals stranded abroad, airport sources said. The AI flight 988 landed at the airport shortly after 10 pm, the sources said. To facilitate the arriving passengers and aircraft crew, the Hyderabad International Airport has kept the international arrivals and the stretch right from the aerobridge to the arrivals ramp fully sanitized and fumigated, the sources said. It will be ensured that passengers follow social distancing norms, they said. The passengers would be screened by thermal cameras prior to immigration formalities, they said. Glass shields were provided at each manned immigration counter to avoid any personal contact between the passengers and immigration officers, they said. The passengers would be taken for mandatory quarantine at the designated locations in the city, the sources added.

Haji Mohammed Sajid could not control his emotion as he came out of the Lucknow airport on Saturday evening after an Air India flight arrived here from Sharjah with 182 Indians on board as part of the government's 'Vande Bharat Mission'. Kissing the floor of the airport, much to the surprise of the officials and mediapersons present there, a teary eyed Sajid said, "I was missing my parents and India very much." "I thank the government for helping me reunite with my family after being stranded abroad for the past couple of months," said the Ayodhya resident, who worked as garment designer in the United Arab Emirates. With just one coffee vending machine and a fruit cart, the airport wore a forlorn look, while the arrival board displayed the lone flight IX184 that arrived around 9.00 pm. CISF jawans maintained a strict watch on the activities of the visitors as passengers started coming out of the airport at 10.30 pm. They were screened and sent to quarantine. "This is the first flight

The first batch of 326 Indian nationals stranded in the UK due to the coronavirus-linked global travel restrictions arrived here from London early on Sunday morning. The special evacuation flight AI 130, a Boeing 777 plane which departed from London on Saturday, landed at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) at around 1.30 AM with 326 Indians, according to a source. "1st flight 2 #Mumbai landed- crew interaction less with the passengers. Protective kit was given 2 all-along with snack n meal kept on the seat beforehand. Next #quarantine. Watch the space," tweeted a passenger onboard the flight. "Reached Mumbai safely from UK. Thank you so much to @airindiain @HCI_London, @NISAU_UK, @MEAIndia," another person said in a tweet. The airport authorities, in a statement on Saturday, said that the arriving passengers with symptoms will be moved to isolation centres. Asymptomatic passengers residing in Mumbai will be moved to quarantine facilities like hotels, ..

INS Jalashwa carrying 698 repatriated Indian citizens from the Maldives arrived in Kochi harbour on Sunday morning, completing the Indian Navy's first massive evacuation exercise from foreign soil during the COVID-19 lockdown, official sources said. The passengers would disembark from the cruise terminal of Cochin Port Trust, they said. Inspector General of Police Vijay Sakhare said all arrangements are in place to facilitate the safe stay of those repatriated, comprising 440 Keralites and people from other parts of the country. Four passengers are from Lakshwadeep. Besides these, the other passengers are from Tamil Nadu (187), Telganana (9), Andhra Pradesh (8), Karnataka (8), Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan (3 each) and Goa (1), Assam (1). There are seven passengers each from Uttarakhand and West Bengal, Delhi (4), Puducherry (3), while there are two passengers each from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand, the sources said.

Troops of India and China were involved in a fierce face-off and many of them sustained minor injuries in the clash near Naku La in the Sikkim sector along the Sino-Indo border on Saturday, official sources said. The troops disengaged after dialogue at the local level, they said. "Troops resolve such issues mutually as per established protocols. Such an incident occurred after a long time," said a source.

He hops off a helicopter, whips off his shades and makes a dash through the grounds towards his home to give his mother a surprise, but there she is, waiting at the door with a pooja thali' in her hand. That admittedly cheesy scene between Shah Rukh Khan and Jaya Bachchan from the blockbuster Hindi film Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham was playing in Sonali Puri's mind when she was on a Mumbai-Jammu flight to give her mother a surprise last month. Her mother was at the door just as she had imagined but instead of a thali' was a hand sanitiser! Good hygiene is a blessing in times of coronavirus, my mother told me, laughed the 37-year-old. That was in mid-March, a few days before the coronavirus forced lockdown began on March 25. And home in Jammu is where Puri still is, the short vacation turning into extended mother-daughter downtime, both recalibrating their equations as they spend focused time with each other after years. This Mother's Day, the first time in years perhaps that Puri has been .

India's fuel consumption fell almost 46 per cent in April as all petroleum products, except LPG, saw massive demand erosion following the nationwide lockdown that halted economic activity and travel. The demand, which showed signs of pick up in the last 10 days of April after the government allowed resumption of economic activity beyond the urban municipal limit, is likely to rebound in second half of May as more areas are opened. India's fuel consumption fell 45.8 per cent to 9.929 million tonnes in April, down from 18.32 million tonnes fuel consumed in the same month a year back, according to official data released by the petroleum ministry. Fuel consumption during March, when travel restrictions began to be imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus, stood at 16.08 million tonnes. Petrol sales were down 60.43 per cent to 9,73,000 tonnes in April. The demand for the fuel had fallen 64 per cent in first half of the month, but there was some pick up in sales after reopening of some ...

Notwithstanding the ongoing lockdown which has mostly restricted the movement of vehicles to essential commodities only, the 270-km Jammu-Srinagar national highway has become a nightmare for the commuters due to the pathetic condition of the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the country. The people living along the strategic highway, especially in the most slide prone Ramban-Banihal sector, are also exasperated over the slow pace of work on the four-laning project being undertaken by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) over the past nine years. "This is not the road but has become a virtual death trap. You can see the drivers of all types of vehicles, both light and heavy, moving out of their lanes to avoid the massive potholes dotting the highway right from Samroli to Qazigund, a distance of almost 120-kms, thus increasing the chances of accidents on the hilly road," Rajinder Singh, a frequent traveller between the twin capitals, told PTI. Singh said ..

An Air India flight landed here from London at 1.30 am on Sunday carrying 239 Indians from the UK who were stranded there due to suspension of commercial passenger air services and the subsequent lockdown, an official statement said. In addition to this, two more repatriation flights -- one each from Singapore and Manila ( Philippines) -- are expected to arrive in Mumbai on Sunday, it said. While the flight from Singapore (AI 343) will be carrying 243 passengers, the Manila-Mumbai flight (AI 387) would bring back 241 Indian nationals from the South East Asian country, as per the statement. "1st flight 2 #Mumbai landed- crew interaction less with the passengers. Protective kit was given 2 all-along with snack n meal kept on the seat beforehand. Next #quarantine. Watch the space," tweeted a passenger on the flight. "Reached Mumbai safely from UK. Thank you so much to @airindiain @HCI_London, @NISAU_UK, @MEAIndia," another passenger tweeted. The Mumbai airport authorities, in a statement

The dimensions of the open, continuous and unchecked textbooks publishing rackets have recently come to light following the defeat of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government in the general election held last year. Srinidhi Raghavendra reports.

To mark its fifth anniversary, EducationWorld asked several educationists and industry leaders with proven commitment to improving the education system to write prescriptions for a renaissance of Indian education. Dilip Thakore threads the responses together.

Since the introduction of the central government's Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme, enrolment numbers in schools have gone up. But how reliable and meaningful are the enrolment figures? Deepa A uncovers major indications of things having gone wrong in SSA's quest for targets.

Women domestic workers and children narrated horrific stories of violence and abuse at a recent public hearing in New Delhi, co-organized by the National Commission for Women (NCW). Organizers aimed to raise public awareness. Teresa Barat reports.

Possibly, but perhaps not alone. There are plenty of obstacles within our unjust and deeply hierarchical civil society outside of the media. Still, an important connection exists between journalism and the strengthening of civil society: citizenship. The India Together editorial.

A quiet but steady revolution seems to be underway as both government and private individuals and organizations increasingly explore ways to make more data available to the people and in various innovative ways to facilitate application. Shamala Kittane reports.

If charitable giving in India is to rise to the next level, the social sector needs to take more serious note of donors' preference for active involvement in the use of donations, explains Shankar Jaganathan.

What's in a name? Apparently a lot in a country like ours, where even today regressive practices like identifying a person's caste by his or her surname or identifying a woman by her husband's name continue unabated, writes Navya P K.

At a time when the position of women in India and their struggles in society are at the centre of public attention, it seems apt to invoke the legacy of one who was truly the pioneer of women's studies and activism in the country. Shoma A Chatterji pays tribute to Vina Mazumdar.

Widows in India have lived on the margins of society for decades but the intervention of NGO Sulabh International, led by Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, has brought new hope and colour in their lives. Ramesh Menon reports on one of the first celebrations in their new-found lives.

There are four ideas for a Lokpal and a 'Sense of the House' resolution of Parliament itself before the standing committee whic begins work shortly. The battle for Lokpal is far from over, writes Mathew Prasad Idiculla.

In a country where the need for collective and institutional engagement in social improvement is stark, Shankar Jaganathan explores the role and contours of individual responsibility - both towards self and society - as a necessary precondition for the former.

Political differences notwithstanding, given the shared socio-cultural fabric, it makes sense for India to collaborate with her South Asian neighbours and look to them for solutions to common problems, writes Sakuntala Narasimhan.

Decades of struggle and innumerable sacrifices are involved in the long history of women's movement in India. Deepti Priya Mehrotra speaks to some of the exemplary leaders who recall the history of women’s movement and their role in it.

Shivani Chaudhry

12 March this year marks the 75th anniversary of Gandhi's famous 1930 march from Sabarmati to Dandi to break the exploitative salt tax law. With the ruling Congress party staking a claim to the legacy of the march, Venu Madhav Govindu comments on its true symbolism.

Popular ideas of development and management of common resources should be revisited in light of this year's Economics Nobel Prize, given to Prof. Elinor Ostrom, writes Prakash Kashwan.

The inability of India to adequately provide for its own population no longer reflects a failure of implementation, but rather of a failure of innovation, writes Aditya Dev Sood.

Tribal societies and groups belonging to the Scheduled Tribes in India are traditionally known to have been relatively gender-unbiased, but recent reports and statistics point to a deteriorating child sex ratio in these communities, too. Shambhu Ghatak analyses the findings.

Contrary to many predictions a unified and democratic India still survives. Why? Ramachandra Guha continues his rememberance of the great patriots.

In their readiness to identify with the oppressed, Naxalites are in contrast to the bureaucrat, the politician and the police officer, but they are not revolutionaries, writes Ramachandra Guha.

The Annual Status of Education Report, 2009 points out yet again that what stands between rural girls and a good education is often basic facilities like transport and proper toilets, writes Kalpana Sharma.

One woman dies every eight minutes due to complications arising due to pregnancy such as sepsis, haemorrhage or obstructed labour. These deaths could be avoided if there is timely medical intervention, writes Kalpana Sharma.

A multitude of grassroots movements are emerging across the country in resistance to the mainstream economy and polity. These initiatives are exploring sustainable, equitable and  just paths to human well-being. Ashish Kothari and Pallav Das offer an insight into the need for such movements.

Is freedom of speech and expression deeply accepted in Indian society? Or is it merely a European cultural import that made its way along with the English language and appeared in the Constitution because of the founding fathers' genius? Satarupa Sen Bhattacharya reviews Freedom Song, a film and connects the dots.

Shoma Chatterji talks about caste and the portrayal of Dalit in Hindi cinema beginning with Bombay Talkies Achhut Kannya (1936) to Bimal Roy’s Sujata (1959) followed by many mainstream films, and the small-budget, low-key ones which have focused on this significant social issue in the past so many years.

The hypocrisy with which the Government of West Bengal acted at Nandigram this March is a serious cause of disillusionment and has opened the door to further radicalisation of the dispossessed. Tanveer Kazi presents the dalit perspective, even as the High Court continues to pass strictures on the state government.

Devinder Sharma points out the deeper flaws in the thinking behind Budget 2004-5.

He's one of the subcontinent's most exciting literary talents. His new book 'Noon' explores violence in South Asia. Son of Pakistani politician Salman Taseer, assassinated after defying Islamist groups, Aatish Taseer speaks with Srijana Mitra Das about nations, truth, lies and ties that bind - or break - people.

Odia singer Antara Chakrabarty is spending her lockdown days by doing things for which she earlier didn’t get time due to her busy work schedule.

Many Asian martial arts trace their origins to the fifth century and the supposed arrival of an Indian Buddhist monk, Bodhidarma, at the Shoalin temple in southern China.

Syndicalism is a form of trade unionism and has its origins in France. It aims at the abolition of the capitalist owners and the appropriation - by the workers - of all the methods used in an industry, and the products resulting therefrom.

Vande Bharat Mission: Indians in US ready to be rescued

After slamming door on Air India crews, Noida Authority takes back order

Scuffle breaks out between Indian and Chinese army near Naku La in Sikkim