Delhi

New Delhi, Feb 11 (PTI) An appeal has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the direction of the Karnataka High Court that has asked students not to insist on wearing any cloth on campuses of educational institutions which can instigate people, till the matter is resolved.

The plea filed by a student has sought a stay on the direction of the high court, which is hearing the hijab issue, as well as the proceedings going on before the three judge bench.

New Delhi, Feb 10 (PTI) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday urged people to come out and vote and free the country from all fears as polling for the first phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections was underway.

Polling for 58 assembly seats spread across 11 districts in the western part of the state began in the morning.

"Free the country from all fears -- come out and vote," Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.

New Delhi, Feb 9 (PTI) The government on Wednesday banned import of drones, with certain exceptions, as part of efforts to promote manufacturing of drones in the country.

Import of drones for R&D, defence and security purposes have been exempted from the ban but such imports will require due clearances.

"Import of drone components, however, shall not require any approvals," the civil aviation ministry said in a release on Wednesday.

New Delhi, Feb 10 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Thursday said it would consider a submission seeking the listing of a plea for transferring a case on the hijab row from the Karnataka High Court to itself.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana said the high court is seized of the case and should be allowed to continue with the hearing and decide it.

New Delhi, Feb 8 (PTI) About 5,8000 NGOs, which did not submit their applications for renewal of FCRA registration, deemed to have ceased to exist according to law.

Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai also said in Lok Sabha that FCRA registration of a total of 1,811 NGOs have been cancelled during the last three years - from 2019 to 2021.

New Delhi, Feb 8 (PTI) As many as 4,844 foreigners were granted the Indian citizenship in the last five years under the Citizenship Act 1955, Union Minister Nityanand Rai said in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Rai, the Union Minister of State for Home, said 1,773 foreigners were granted the Indian citizenship in 2021, 639 in 2020, 987 in 2019, 628 in 2018 and 817 in 2017.

The Indian citizenship is governed under the provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955, he said in a written reply to a question.

Mumbai, Feb 8 (PTI) Ahead of the monetary policy announcement on Thursday wherein the MPC is likely to begin liquidity tightening with a marginal reverse repo hike, states on Tuesday had to pay a higher price to bond investors as the weighted average cut-off rate jumped by a hefty 41 basis points to 7.24 per cent.

In the previous auction of State Development Loans (SDLs) last Tuesday, the cut-off was only 6.83 per cent.

New Delhi, Feb 9 (PTI) The Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) operating in Assam have declared 143,466 people as foreigners so far and 329 of them were deported to their countries of origin.

Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai also said in the Rajya Sabha that a total of 121,598 have also been declared as Indians by the FTs.

New Delhi, Feb 9 (PTI) Chief of Army Staff Gen MM Naravane on Wednesday spoke to Lt Gen Fahd Bin Abdullah Mohammed Al-Mutair, the Commander of Royal Saudi Armed Forces of Saudi Arabia, focusing on ways to deepen bilateral military ties.

The Army said various aspects of bilateral defence cooperation figured in the talks.

New Delhi, Feb 8 (PTI) The Supreme Court Tuesday refused to grant interim bail to Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan for campaigning in the UP assembly polls.

A bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai, however, granted liberty to Khan to approach the concerned court and request for expeditious disposal of bail pleas.

How can you file 32 petitions to seek bail? Don't bring politics in court, the bench observed.