HYDERABAD l saturday l may 23, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 18 l LATE CITY EDITION NCERT book row: SC Modifies ORDER blacklisting 3 ACADEMIC experts The March 11 order had directed the Centre and states to disassociate from the academicians over a controversial chapter on corruption in judiciary Michel Danino Suparna Diwakar Alok Prasanna Deletes Adverse remarks in March 11 order Observation not on individuals: Court A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi deleted the adverse remarks against Professor Michel Danino, Suparna Diwakar and Alok Prasanna Kumar that the academicians had deliberately misrepresented facts. It recalled its direction to blacklist the authors, saying the authorities can take an independent decision | ■ ■ The bench passed the order while hearing an application filed by the academicians, who explained that no individual had the sole say in the drafting of the content and it was a collective process The court said its observations were on the contents and not on the individuals, adding that the contents were “wholly undesirable” Centre Will not associate with the 3 experts, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told sc CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI The state government will implement the revised market value of lands (registration prices) across the state with effect from May 28. This was disclosed at a Cabinet sub-committee on resource mobilisation under the chairmanship of Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka at the Secretariat on Friday. According to officials, the move is expected to significantly increase the revenue of the Registration department. Stressing that resource mobilisation should align with the proposed budget estimates for the financial year 2026–27, Vikramarka instructed officials to completely plug leakages and fully tap all available revenue sources to achieve the budget targets. He directed officials of all departments to focus on mobilising additional revenue sources in line with the budget requirements for the current financial year. Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy and IT & Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu, who are also members of the committee, attended the meeting. CONTINUED ON P4 express read TG education panel chief quits Hyderabad: Telangana Education Commission (TEC) Chairman Akunuri Murali resigned from his post on Friday. He submitted his resignation letter to Chief Secretary Ramakrishna Rao, four months before the completion of his tenure. He was appointed TEC chairman in 2024. During his tenure, the commission proposed several reforms in the state education system | P4 Five die due to heatstroke Five persons reportedly died due to heatstroke in different villages of Jayashankar Bhupalpally district and within the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) limits in Hanamkonda on Friday. Meanwhile, the IMD has forecast continued heatwave conditions across parts of Telangana over the next three days | P2 Tulsi Gabbard resigns as DNI Washington: Tulsi Gabbard resigned as President Donald Trump’s Director of National Intelligence (DNI) on Friday, saying she needed to step away as her husband battles cancer. She is the fourth Cabinet official to depart during Trump’s second term. “My husband has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer,” she said. @ New Delhi Bumper payout to help govt surmount the financial distress due to West Asia conflict B E N N KOCHUV E E DA N @ Mumbai THE Reserve Bank of India on Friday announced a bumper surplus—also known as dividend—payout of `2.87 lakh crore to the Centre for the year ended March 2026 (FY26). The surplus for FY26, which will be transferred in FY27, is nearly 7% higher than `2.68 lakh crore for FY25 and will help the government tide over the revenue constraints due to geopolitical tensions. The latest transfer was possible due to a 21% expansion in the central bank’s balance sheet, driven by large open market operations and dollar sales during the year. “Taking into consideration the current macroeconomic factors, financial performance of the Bank and maintenance of appropriate risk buffers, the Central Board decided to transfer `1,09,379.64 crore towards the contingent risk buffer (CRB) for FY26 as against `44,861.70 crore in the previous year, and maintain the CRB at 6.5% of the balance sheet. Accordingly , it decided to transfer `2,86,588.46 crore as surplus to the government for the accounting year 2025-26,” RBI said in a statement after its board meeting chaired by Gover nor Sanjay Malhotra. This is third year in a row that RBI has transferred over `2 lakh crore to the Central government. It transferred `2.1 lakh crore in FY25. The central bank said its gross income rose 26.42% year-on-year, while expenditure before risk provisions increased 27.6%. Net income before risk provisions and transfer to statutory funds stood at `3.96 lakh crore in FY26 against `3.13 lakh crore in FY25. RBI’s balance sheet expanded 20.61% yearon-year to `91.97 lakh crore. Under the revised Economic Capital Framework adopted in 2019, RBI can maintain the CRB between 4.5% and 7.5% of the balance sheet. The central bank retained the CRB at 6.5% for the second consecutive year. The balance sheet of the bank expanded by 20.61% to `91,97,121.08 crore (`91.97 lakh crore) as on March 31, 2026 Reserve Bank of India Surplus transfer (`crore) 2,10,874 2,68,590 2,86,588 @ Hyderabad SUCHITRA KALYA N MOHA N T Y 57,128 99,122 30,307 87,416 E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e `2.87 lakh crore Umar Khalid case sent to larger bench RBI ‘gift’ amid economic stress 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23 2023-24 2024-25 2025-26 2026-27 Revised land registration rates from May 28 Joining issue with a coordinate bench that criticised the denial of bail to Delhi riots accused Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, arrested under the harsh Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), a bench of justices Aravind Kumar and P B Varale referred the matter to a larger bench to resolve the perceived conflict in the higher judiciary . A three-judge bench had in the Union of India v KA Najeeb case, held that long incarceration can be a ground to The Jabalpur police took his custody and handed him over to its Bhopal counterpart Twisha’s MP husband held 3 highgovt requests court to cancel anticipatory amid high drama to Twisha’s ex-judge bail given motherin-law Giribala Singh; court issues notice Giribala tried to tamper with evidence and obstruct police investigations, govt tells court. Says she leaked select small clips of CCTV footage on social media to tamper with evidence | Full coverage: P10 ACB unearths assets worth `100 cr in raids on dy collector @ Hyderabad The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Friday registered a case against Special Grade Deputy Collector in the Urban Land Ceiling (ULC) wing in Medchal-Malkajgiri, Marri Vamsi Mohan, for allegedly possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. ACB sleuths conducted simultaneous searches at multiple locations in Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts for nearly 12 hours and reportedly unearthed assets suspected to be worth around `100 crore in the open market, sources said. During the investigation, of- Vamsi Mohan ficials detected a suspicious land transaction involving an eight-acre agricultural land parcel in Survey No 17 of Piglipur village in Abdullapurmet mandal of Rangareddy district. According to an official release issued by the ACB, the land was allegedly purchased in 2023 in the name of Vijay Bhasker, the father-in-law of the accused officer. Sources “A coordinate bench cannot make strong observations and effectively unsettle the ratio of an earlier bench while sitting in equal strength. The law has often grown through reasoned differences,” the court said, adding a coordinate bench may, however, express doubt The Indian Air Force, the world’s last operator of the Jaguar strike aircraft, is facing a fresh sustainment challenge after Martin-Baker informed it that more than 250 Mk9 seats categories of critical spares for the fleet’s ejection seats Manufacturer Martin-Baker says it can can no longer be supplied. no longer supply over 250 categories of spares for the Jaguar’s ejection seats Sources said the Mk 9 ejection seats fitted across the Jaguar fleet, including trainer parts must meet the exact devariants, are facing growing sign, material and performance obsolescence as the original specifications of the original equipment manuc o m p o n e n t s, ” a facturer (OEM) is source said. press clusive unable to meet a Mk 9’s seat lacks substantial portion automatic ejection o f t h e I A F ’ s s p a r e s capability and requires the pirequirement. lot to manually initiate escape “Repairs are being undertak- by pulling the ejection handle. en in-house using available re- That poses challenges. Bird sources but addressing the is- strikes, engine failures at low sue is critical if the ejection altitude or pilot incapacitation seats are to remain viable in can leave little margin for a sucthe long run. Any substitute cessful escape. 2 S i d d h a r d h a G at t i m i ‘Law grew through reasoned differences’ J a v a r i a R a n a @ New Delhi On the run for 10 days, Samarth Singh, lawyer-husband of model-actor Twisha Sharma, main accused in her dowry death case, sought to surrender before a Jabalpur court on Friday Twisha’s father Navnidhi Sharma, too, moves HC seeking cancellation of Giribala’s anticipatory bail Kumar-led bench observed that Najeeb was not a mathematical command to mechanically grant bail if there was a delay in trial. It pointed out that bail was granted to five accused on January 5 and denied to Khalid and Imam following an individualised assessment of their roles. IAF grapples with spares supply crunch for Jaguar’s ejection seat 1 HC allows second autopsy of Twisha, as sought by her family grant bail in cases under the UAPA. Citing this verdict, a bench of Justices Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan had said, “Judicial discipline and certainty demands that Benches of smaller strength are mindful of the decisions rendered by larger Benches and are bound to follow the same.” In its rebuttal, the Aravind said the land was later handed over to private individuals through gift deeds. Vamsi Mohan, who had earlier served as the RDO of Serilingampally is alleged to have , amassed huge wealth through corrupt practices and dubious means. The ACB officials conducted searches at his residence in Vanasthalipuram, his of fice premises in the ULC wing at Medchal, and 11 other locations linked to his relatives, associates and suspected benamis. ACB Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Laxmikanth Reddy said around 10 to 12 teams carried out searches at 13 locations from Friday morning.  continued on p7 The seat lacks automatic ejection capability The IAF is simultaneously pursuing foreign sourcing options and working with domestic industry on a long-term indigenous solution. “The industry has been tasked with developing an advanced ejection seat that can ensure safe pilot ejection at all speeds and altitudes. We are looking at a seat that can be integrated across multiple fighter platforms with little or no modification,” the source added. The IAF has around 120 Jaguars. HC tears into WFI for blaming Phogat over Olympic disqualification UDAYA N KISHOR E @ New Delhi The Delhi High Court on Friday pulled up the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) for blaming celebrated grappler Vinesh Phogat, who “suffered a heartbreak in the Olympics”, instead of fixing the responsibility on the sports managers. The court also said that Phogat, seeking return from a maternity break, should not be “denounced for becoming a mother”. A bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia described her as “a wrestler of international repute” and reprimanded the federation for its decision to declare Phogat “ineligible” to participate in domestic events. It said it would pass an order on whether she can join the upcoming Asian Games selection trials. The bench was appalled by the WFI’s show-cause notice to Phogat, which blamed her for causing “national embarrassment” by being disqualified from the Paris Olympics for be- ing overweight ahead of her gold medal match. “Was it a national shame? She was in the finals. How did the people of the country look at the event? Would you describe it as a national shame? Is that how you are serving the cause of wrestling in the country? What was the mood of the country at that time,” the bench said. It also questioned why the 2024 Olympic episode was brought up in the notice issued to her earlier this month. The bench wondered why it should not be presumed that the WFI changed the selection criteria for her. It denounced the WFI’s selection policy as “absolutely retrograde”. “She became a mother in July 2025. We are in May Why can’t . it be presumed that you changed it (selection criteria) for her... Whatever may be the feud or dispute, why should the cause of sports suffer? Motherhood is celebrated in the country, should it come to the detriment of a person,” the court said. Munir in Tehran as Pak makes push for deal to end West Asia war Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir departed on Friday for an official visit to Tehran in an effort to get the US and Iran to reach a deal to end the conflict | P11 The order dictated in the open court said the issue concerns the proper constitutional approach to be adopted, where the prolonged incarceration and delay in conclusion of the trial are pressed as the grounds for bail, notwithstanding the statutory constraint contained in Section 43D(5) of UAPA. The bench was considering arguments made by the Delhi Police in the petitions filed by two other accused Tasleem Ahmed and Khalid Saifi seeking bail. It granted them interim bail for six months. Tesla keen to set up showroom, service centre in Hyderabad E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Hyderabad Hyderabad is set to get a Tesla electric vehicle showroom and service centre, with the global EV giant expressing interest in expanding its presence in Telangana. Representatives of Tesla met IT and Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu on Friday and conveyed the company’s plans to commence sales operations in the city . He said Tesla is not merely an EV manufacturer but a company driving innovation in electric vehicle software, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, robotics, battery techn o l o g i e s a n d a dva n c e d manufacturing. He added that the state’s technology ecosystem aligns well with Tesla’s long-term goals. The minister said companies based in the city are playing a key role in developing chips and sensors required for nextgeneration electric and smart mobility systems globally.  continued on p7 2 months jail, `50 fine for man for abusing parents E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Hyderabad A local court at Nampally sentenced a 44-year-old man to two months in jail and imposed a fine of `50 for allegedly physically abusing and ill-treating his elderly parents. The convict, identified as G Srinivas, a private employee living within the limits of Narayanguda police station, had allegedly been subjecting his parents, both aged above 70 years, to continuous physical and mental harassment for the past year over familyrelated issues, according to the police. Unable to endure the alleged abuse and trauma, the elderly couple approached the Narayanguda police and lodged a complaint against their son. Based on the complaint, the police registered a case against Srinivas under Section 70(B) of the City Police Act and Section 115(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). The Narayanguda police collected evidence and filed a chargesheet before the Special Judicial Magistrate Court at Nampally . After examining the evidence and case records, Special Judicial Magistrate M Bhasker found Srinivas guilty and sentenced him to undergo two months of imprisonment besides imposing a fine of `50.