Sixteen people were killed as a thunderstorm hit several parts of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday, officials said in Lucknow on Thursday. Twenty-seven people were reported injured, while 37 animals, 16 in Aligarh and 13 in Mathura, perished in the storm. Four deaths were recorded in Etawah, while three each were reported from Aligarh and Mathura districts in the Braj region. Two died each in Agra and Firozabad, while one each was reported in Kanpur Dehat and Hathras. ... Read More

NEW DELHI: Justice J Chelameswar, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, has written a letter to the Chief Justice of India asking him to convene a meeting of the collegium to urgently forward to the Centre the name of Uttarakhand Chief Justice KM Joseph as the judge of the apex court. The government had on April 26 returned the collegium's recommendation + to elevate Justice Joseph seeking its reconsideration, saying the proposal was not in accordance with the top court's parameters and there was adequate representation of Kerala in the higher judiciary from where he hails. It had also q ... Read More

HYDERABAD: Hitting out at Congress president Rahul Gandhi, the BJP has said that he appears to be day-dreaming about becoming the prime minister of the country – a post which will apparently remain occupied till 2024. The latest attack on Rahul Gandhi's Prime Ministerial aspirations came from senior BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain who stated that there was no vacancy for the top post till 2024 as Narendra Modi would again assume it after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. ... Read More

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the Calcutta high court order asking the West Bengal State Election Commission to accept nomination papers filed through e-mail for contesting the panchayat elections in the state. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra took note of the fact that almost 17,000 candidates have won the panchayat polls unopposed and directed the state poll panel not to declare them as winners. The bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, asked the state poll panel to ensure “free and fair” panchayat elections on May 14 in the state. ... Read More

The north Indian states of Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan experienced dust storms, strong winds and rain while a severe storm, accompanied by hail and rain, lashed Shimla. Dust storms, rain and thunder lashed parts of northern India on Tuesday, uprooting trees and blowing the roofs off homes in Himachal Pradesh's Shimla district but striking with less fury in other places. ... Read More

Gusty winds swept parts of Rajasthan on Monday night and on Tuesday morning, affecting life, weather officials said. No casualties have been reported so far. Heavy winds hit Ajmer and some areas of Jaipur this morning while a dust storm hit Bikaner and nearby region on Monday night. The weather office has forecast dust storm, thunderstorm or light rains in 26 out of 33 districts of the State on Tuesday. ... Read More