BHUBANESWAR l saturday l may 23, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 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 A student of Ravenshaw Higher Secondary School has allegedly scored 102 out of 100 in English in the Plus II examination, prompting the Council of Higher Secondary Education to attribute the anomaly to a technical glitch. The Science stream student secured 82 marks in theory and 20 in internal assessment, taking the total to 102 in the English paper after grace m a rk s we re m i s t a ke n ly added. Principal Chiranjib Mohapatra said the discrepancy was likely due to a technical or computer-related error. “The matter has already been brought to the notice of CHSE authorities for necessary correction,” he said. CHSE officials termed it a computer-generated technical glitch and clarified that divisional grace marks were inadvertently awarded to the student despite his high score in the subject. As per CHSE norms, a student can receive grace marks up to 0.5 per cent of the total score, subject to a maximum of three marks, to secure a first division. In this case, the grace marks were wrongly added to the English paper. An official said neither the NIC nor the Council of Higher Secondary Education is responsible for any inadvertent error that may have crept into the results published on the website due to technical CONTINUED ON P7 issues. @ New Delhi Bumper payout to help govt surmount the financial distress due to West Asia conflict B E N N K O C H U V E E D A 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 @ Bhubaneswar S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y 57,128 99,122 30,307 87,416 E x p ress N e w s S er 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 Plus 2 student awarded 102 out of 100 in English exam 1 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 2 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 bail given amid high drama to Twisha’s ex-judge motherHC allows second autopsy of Twisha, as sought by her family in-law Giribala Singh; court issues notice Twisha’s father Navnidhi Sharma, too, moves HC seeking cancellation of Giribala’s anticipatory bail 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 Temple trip turns tragic for family: Six killed in mishap E x p ress N e w s S er v i c e @ Berhampur A joyous trip to Maa Singhasini temple in Ganjam’s Polasara turned tragic after a passenger bus rammed into an auto-rickshaw near Ladkapalli chowk under Purushottampur police limits, killing six people including two children on Friday morning. The deceased were identified as Mali Behera (75), Nrusingha Behera (43), Lilabati Behera (45), Ratani Behera (39), Sneha Behera (10) and Kiran Behera (12). All of them were residents of Erendra and nearby Purushottampur villages under Girisola panchayat in Chikiti block. They were members of an extended family . Sources said the Behera family hired an auto-rickshaw to visit the temple for Sneha’s ‘mundan’ (tonsuring) ceremony They started their journey . from Erendra village, unaware of the tragic fate that awaited them. Near Ladkapalli chowk, a speeding passenger bus com- ing from the opposite direction allegedly crashed into the auto-rickshaw. The impact was so severe that the three-wheeler was completely mangled. Locals claimed the bus dragged the auto-rickshaw to a distance of 100 metre before coming to a halt. Fire services personnel rushed to the spot and launched a rescue operation. The victims were shifted to Kodala community health centre where doctors declared six of them dead. Four critically-injured persons including the auto-rickshaw driver were later referred to MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur. CONTINUED ON P7 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 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 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. ‘Law grew through reasoned differences’ “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 IAF grapples with spares supply crunch for Jaguar’s ejection seat J a v aria R ana @ New Delhi 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. HC tears into WFI for blaming Phogat over Olympic disqualification U D AYA N K I S H O R 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 showcause notice to Phogat, which blamed her for causing “national embarrassment” by being disqualified from the Paris Olympics for being 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. 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. 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. express read Pak makes big push for deal to end W Asia war Islamabad: Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir departed on Friday for an official visit to Tehran in an effort to get the US and Iran reach a deal to end the conflict. Munir’s second visit to Tehran in little more than a month comes after progress was reported in talks held by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who has been in Iran since Wednesday, with high-ranking members of Iranian leadership, including twice with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, sources said | P11 HC issues advisory on handling illegal settlers Cuttack: In a significant order aimed at streamlining legal proceedings involving foreign nationals and illegal immigrants, the Orissa High Court has issued a comprehensive set of advisory guidelines while granting bail to a Bangladeshi national accused of illegally entering India and obtaining Indian identity documents | P5 Physics examcase expert nabbed in NEET-UG paper leak The CBI has on Friday arrested another key accused who was the source for leak of NEET-UG 2026 exam physics question paper. The accused, Manisha Sanjay Havaldar, now working in Seth Hiralal Saraf Prashala, Pune, Maharashtra, has been arrested after interrogation by the CBI | P9