Tribunal issues arrest warrant against Hasina Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal on Thursday issued arrest warrants against former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted after massive antigovernment protests, and 45 others for alleged crimes against humanity. The tribunal directed the authorities to produce Hasina and the others before it by November 18, local media reported. The warrant could technically open up the possibility of the country’s interim government seeking her extradition from India| P7 KALABURAGI  FRIDAY  OCTOBER 18, 2024  `9.00  PAGES 12  CITY EDITION 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 APEX COURT UPHOLDS VALIDITY OF SEC 6A OF CITIZENSHIP ACT Black capped in B’luru S WA R O O P S WA M I N AT H A N @ Bengaluru 4:1 verdict holds provision as valid law S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, which grants Indian citizenship to immigrants from Bangladesh who entered Assam before the cutoff date of March 25, 1971. “Parliament had the legislative competence to enact it,” the five-judge Constitution bench, led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, ruled in a 4:1 majority verdict. While the CJI and Justices Surya Kant, M M Sundresh, and Manoj Misra upheld the constitutional validity of Section 6A, Justice J B Pardiwala dissented and quashed Section 6A prospectively . The majority verdict held that Section 6A was enacted to balance the humanitarian concerns with the need to protect the local population. Reading out the verdict, Chandrachud said that enactment of Section 6A was a political solution to a unique problem faced by Assam due to the huge influx of immigrants after creation of Bangladesh. The immigrants seriously threatened the state’s culture and demography, the court noted in its judgment. In this context, the apex court also stressed the need for strict implementation of the statutory provisions to trace the illegal immigrants in Assam and deport them. The apex court asked the Centre and the state government to implement directions in the Sarbananda Sonowal judgments to deal with illegal immigrants and made it clear that it would from now onwards monitor the identification and deportation process. “Those who have entered Assam from Bangladesh on or after March 25, 1971 are all illegal immigrants, who must be identified, detected, and deported,” the majority judgment said. The verdict came in a batch of petitions filed by various parties, including Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha, a Guwahati-based civil society organisation, which had moved the apex court challenging Section 6A way back in 2012. Section 6A of the Citizenship Act was introduced to give effect to the Assam Accord, an agreement signed in 1985 between the Government of India and the leaders of the Assam movement, who wanted removal of foreigners who entered Assam from Bangladesh. HOW THEY FELL India’s Virat Kohli walks back; (Top) Injured Rishabh Pant goes off the field on Thursday | VINOD KUMAR T EXPRESS READ 10-yr-old boy washed away in Haveri drain Haveri: A 10-year-old boy was swept away in a drain in front of his house here on Wednesday night. His body was recovered by a rescue team on Thursday afternoon. Two officials from Haveri town municipality have been suspended | P5 SINWAR KILLED IN GAZA, CONFIRMS ISRAEL The Hamas leader, chief architect of last year’s October 7 massacre of Israelis that sparked the war, killed in Gaza | P9 1-9, Rohit; 2-9, Kohli; 3-10, Sarfaraz; 4-31, Jaiswal; 5-33, Rahul; 6-34, Jadeja; 7-34, Ashwin; 8-39, Pant; 9-40, Bumrah; 10-46, Kuldeep ROHIT Sharma called right at the toss but that was the only thing the hosts got right in a madcap first four hours of play on Thursday Tactical blunders . and questionable calls were the theme of the hosts’ first innings when play belatedly got underway in the first Test versus New Zealand. After the first day was washed out, more rain was forecast for Thursday. It was dark, artificial light was turned on at 9.15 AM and also slightly chilly; some of the fans were wearing sweaters. So, when Sharma called tails, the decision to bat first was open to question. The Black Caps sensed an early opportunity and eschewed the option of playing the extra spinner. The three pacers accounted for all 10 wickets between themselves as they moved the ball through the air while finding seam movement and bounce off the deck (on X, former Indian team analyst, Himanish Ganjoo, made the point). While the visitors were spot on, India ended up with lots of tactical blunders. Opting to bat, playing three spinners, promoting Virat Kohli to No. 3, asking Sarfaraz Khan to bat No. 4, refusing to send KL Rahul up the order... the mistakes kept piling up. The hosts were all out for 46 in 31.2 overs, the lowest ever by any side in Asia. This was also India’s lowest score in India for 37 years. P11 Canada yet to act on Bishnoi gang info Y E S H I S E L I @ New Delhi INDIA on Thursday trashed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations before a commission of inquiry probing foreign interference, that the actions of Indian diplomats violated his country’s sovereignty . “What we heard today only confirms what we have been saying consistently all along. Canada has presented us no evidence whatsoever in support of the serious allegations that it has chosen to level against India and Indian diplomats. The responsibility for the damage that this cavalier behaviour has caused to India-Canada relations lies with Prime Minister Trudeau’s office,’’ said a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs. While Trudeau accused India of using organised ganglords like Lawrence Bishnoi to harm Canadians, Delhi said it had shared with Ottawa information regarding members of the Bishnoi gang and others holed up there. “They have taken no action so far, which are our core concerns. And, there is a political motive behind it, which you know,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. As for the diplomatic chill, visa services have been impacted and only essential services are being attended to at present, which in- cludes cases like medical emergencies. During his deposition, Trudeau admitted that when he first broached the matter of Khalistani radical Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s murder with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit, he had no evidence to prove the allegations of an Indian hand, only intelligence inputs. Meanwhile, the US State Department confirmed that India has removed from its employ an officer accused in the botched murder-for-hire plot to eliminate the proscribed Sikhs for Justice head Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil. ‘DOWRY DEATH’ Man fights lone battle for justice to his daughter RAMAKRISHNA BADSESHI @ Kalaburagi A man, whose married daughter died under mysterious circumstances here last October 23, has launched a lone battle to bring those responsible for her death to justice. Chennappa Gowda, 50, of Gudeballur village in Muktal taluk of Narayanpet district in Telangana, who works at the thermal power plant in Shaktinagar of Raichur district, has put banners in many places, incl u d i n g T i p u C h ow k o n Kalaburagi-Humnabad Ring Road, seeking information on four people allegedly responsible for the death of his daughter Jayalakshmi. The banners have pictures of Jaya l a k s h m i ’s h u s b a n d Shankar Reddy her mother-in, law Savitramma, sister-in-law (elder sister of Reddy) and Dr Lakshmi (younger sister of Reddy). He has also put such banners in Sedam and Shankarpally village. “They have killed my daughter. I believed a minister and the relatives of my son-inlaw, who then asked me not to file a police complaint and promised that they would give me compensation and hand over my granddaughter to my family. But they did not keep their promise and now Shankar Reddy and his family members are absconding,” Chennappa Gowda alleged. P5