The Supreme Court directed lower courts to decide pending default bail applications without relying on its own recent judgment. A judgment of the Supreme Court is considered the law of the land. Article 141 of the Constitution provides that the law declared by the Supreme Court shall be binding on all courts within India. The recent judgment in Ritu …

The Allahabad High Court ordered a “scientific survey”, including carbon dating, of a “Shivling” said to have been found at the Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi. What is carbon dating? Carbon dating is a widely-used method to establish the age of organic materials, things that were once living. Living things have carbon in …

Discussions on integrated policies on sustainable forest management (SFM) and energy to meet the United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) took centre stage on the fourth day of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF18). The eighteenth session of UNFF18 was held in New York. The United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) is a high-level intergovernmental …

The Archeological Survey of India has reportedly found the remains of a lost civilisation, a “modern society” that existed in Bandhavgarh National in Madhya Pradesh. The discovery includes man-made water bodies and paintings that are said to be thousands of years old. The archaeologists found the painting in a rock-cut cave and not in a natural …

The United Kingdom will provide long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine. Storm Shadow is a long-ranged, air-launched, conventionally armed, deep-strike missile, which is manufactured by the France-based MBDA Missile Systems. It was first produced in 1997. Range: More than 250 km. Weight: Storm Shadow weighs 1,300 kg and is 5.10m long. Purpose: It’s capable of being operated day and night in all …

The Indian Railways has taken up the renovation of the historic Paralakhemundi railway station, one of India’s oldest and the first in Odisha’s Gajapati district. Paralakhemundi Light Railway (PLR) Naupada (a small town, now in Andhra Pradesh) got rail lines in 1894, as part of construction of Cuttack-Khurda Road railway line extending up to …