NEWS

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to intervene on a plea that vaccinations should not be made mandatory, saying the steps were being taken by countries across the world to push vaccination and no measure should be taken that will fuel vaccine hesitancy.
While agreeing to hear a PIL seeking disclosure of clinical trial data of Covid vaccines, the SC said doubts should not be created about vaccine efficacy without scientific proof as many people are already reluctant to take the shots key to contain the pandemic.

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Aniruddha Bose issued notice to the Centre seeking response on a plea filed by former member of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, Jacob Puliyel, for making public segregated data from the clinical trials.

While the morning session of Rajya Sabha was on Monday washed out once again, as the Opposition continued to demand discussions on different issues, the House paid tribute to the participants of the Quit India Movement in 1942 on its anniversary.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said that on this occasion “we also need to remind ourselves of the imperative need to effectively nurture our legislative bodies, the principal institutions of self-rule, which was the sole objective of the freedom struggle, in which millions laid down their lives.”

After the House paid its tribute, Congress leaders Anand Sharma said that in his reference Naidu had missed mentioning that the call for Quit India was given “following the passage of the resolution at the historic Gowalia Tank by the Congress Working Committee, which led to banning of the Congress and imprisonment of all its leaders for three years”.

BJP's income in 2019-20 jumped almost 50% to Rs 3,623 crore from Rs 2,410 crore in 2018-19, while its total expenditure rose 64% to Rs 1,651 crore from Rs 1,005 crore over the same period.

According to BJP's annual audit report for the year 2019-20 put out by the Election Commission on Monday, the ruling party received Rs 2,555 crore from electoral bonds in 2019-20, a 76% increase over its Rs 1,450 crore income through this route in 2018-19. Total election expenditure of BJP in 2019-20, an election year, stood at Rs 1,352.92 crore, up from nearly Rs 792.4 crore in 2018-19.

The CBI has arrested five people for allegedly posting defamatory content against judges of the Andhra Pradesh High Court and the Supreme Court on social media, officials said on Sunday.

The role of a Lok Sabha member Nandigam Suresh and Amanchi Krishna Mohan, both of the YSR Congress, are under scanner in the case, and both have been examined by the agency in its effort to unearth a larger conspiracy, they said.

“To investigate the larger conspiracy, the CBI has also examined certain persons, including an MP, ex-MLA and also continued investigation into the role of other persons who were not mentioned in the FIR,” CBI spokesperson RC Joshi said. The agency had on Saturday arrested two people — Pattapu Aadarsh and Lavanuru Samba Siva Reddy — from Andhra Pradesh.