Barnala, who is currently out on bail, was present in the Court. The SAD MLA from Dhuri was arrested on August 12 after his maid charged him with raping her.
Barnala served as chief minister pf Punjab from 1985 to 1987.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested I-PAC co-founder Vinesh Chandel in connection with a money laundering case linked to the coal scam probe in West Bengal, escalating tensions ahead of the state's Assembly elections.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann appeared before the Akal Takht Secretariat after being summoned for alleged remarks on Sikh traditions. He submitted his clarification and expressed respect for the Akal Takht's authority.
The Supreme Court's opinion on the presidential reference can impact on any number of cases if and when governors, if not the President, take a literary view of the Supreme Court's 'ppinion' on their 'discretionary powers' without reference to the rider on 'reasonable time', points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
A former chief minister of Punjab, Barnala has the ability to carry other parties with him, including Akali Dal from the National Democratic Alliance.
In 2025, India launched Operation Sindoor, a multi-domain combat mission against Pakistan in response to cross-border terrorism. The operation involved precision strikes, military retaliation, and diplomatic measures, marking a significant shift in India's security policy.
India has carried out strikes against nine terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Wednesday. The strikes were in retaliation to the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 civilians were killed. Singh said the strikes were precise and destroyed the targets set under Operation Sindoor.
Heavy rains exacerbate the flood situation in Punjab, leading to 37 deaths and widespread crop damage. Rescue and relief operations are underway as authorities issue alerts and provide assistance to affected populations.
Blackouts were enforced in Amritsar and Hoshiarpur's Dasuya and Mukerian areas as a precautionary measure. Electricity supply in Amritsar was restored at 11:42 pm on Monday.
Markaz Taiba of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Pakistan's Muridke, one of the nine terror camps struck by the Indian armed forces on Wednesday, is a site where terrorists including Ajmal Kasab involved in the 2008 Mumbai attack were trained, a senior military official said.
Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 15 assembly seats spread across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand. The bypolls, however, will not have any direct impact on the respective legislative assemblies. The results will be declared on November 23. In Uttar Pradesh, polling will be held in Katehari, Karhal, Meerapur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan, Sisamau, Khair, Phulpur and Kundarki. Ninety candidates are in the fray in these seats with the maximum of 14 in Ghaziabad. This will be the first electoral test of the INDIA bloc as well as the NDA in the politically-crucial state after the Lok Sabha elections. In Punjab, bypolls will be held in four assembly seats - Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal (SC) and Barnala. The bypolls were necessitated after MLAs representing them were elected to the Lok Sabha. Polling will also be held for the Palakkad seat in Kerala and Kedarnath in Uttarakhand.
In a strong retaliation to the Pahalgam massacre, India's armed forces early Wednesday destroyed nine terror sites including that of Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) using deep strike missiles in a 25-minute-long 'measured and non-escalatory' mission.
Over 100 terrorists, including high-value targets such as Yusuf Azhar, Abdul Malik Rauf and Mudasir Ahmed, were eliminated during Operation Sindoor on May 7, the Indian military said on Sunday.
Punjab Police launched a statewide operation against drugs, conducting raids at more than 750 locations as the cabinet sub-committee on the drug menace held its first meeting on Saturday. Around 12,000 police personnel were involved in the operation being carried out as part of an anti-drug campaign. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday set a deadline of three months to make the state drug-free. The operation led to the arrest of 290 drug smugglers after registration of 232 FIRs. Police recovered 8.14 kg heroin, 1.21 kg opium, 3.5 kg ganja, 19 kg poppy husk, 700 grams charas, 16,238 intoxicant tablets, injections and Rs 8.02 lakh cash.
How to conduct the mock exercise with active public participation of people was discussed threadbare at a high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan. Top civil and police officers of the country participated in the meeting, official sources said.
Five-time former Punjab chief minister and Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal, who was admitted to a private hospital in Mohali over a week ago, died on Tuesday. He was 95.
The accused were also allegedly involved in the recent murder of another person in Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior.
The sources claimed that one of those arrested is believed to be Arsh Dalla, who is associated with the banned Khalistan Tiger Force and ran terror modules on behalf of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a designated terrorist who was killed in June last year.
Shinde will replace Surjit Singh Barnala, who has been shifted from Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu, the release said.
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An average voter turnout of 20 per cent was recorded in the first four hours of voting in the bypolls to 15 assembly seats spread across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand on Wednesday amid an incident of stone pelting in a village in UP's Meerapur and allegations of police personnel deterring voters from casting their ballot.
The Congress stalwart could not have asked for a better gift on his 75th birthday.
State Governor Surjit Singh Barnala administered oath of secrecy to Jayalalithaa at the Madras University's centenary auditorium in Chennai.
Rejecting charges of irregularities in allotment of land under discretionary quota, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi on Tuesday hit back at Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy for seeking sanction for his prosecution on the issue, saying he was trying to "twist facts".
Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah was on Wednesday sworn-in as the governor of Tamil Nadu. Madras high court Chief Justice M Y Eqbal administered the oath of office to Rosaiah at a function in Raj Bhavan in Chennai.
Ruling parties held sway in most of the 13 states in the assembly byelection results declared on Saturday, with the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies wresting seats in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan and the Trinamool Congress sweeping West Bengal.
The Punjab government has declared a holiday on Thursday as a mark of respect to the former chief minister.
The former Maharashtra chief minister succeeds Surjit Singh Barnala.
The Legislative Council was abolished 20 years ago.
Ahead of the Punjab assembly polls, former Army chief Gen Joginder Jaswant Singh on Tuesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in Chandigarh in the presence of the party leadership, including Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
They committed criminal trespass, injured officials, disrespected the Indian flag and damaged public property.
Union ministers Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal and Nityanand Rai and farmer leaders from Punjab will meet on Sunday for the fourth round of talks.
The 150-year-old Madras University on Friday conferred Honorary Doctorates of Literature (D.Litt) on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi at a special convocation to commemorate its sesquicentennial-year celebrations.
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