DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 2024, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY 6-1 MAJORITY RULING OVERTURNS 2004 VERDICT BY 5-JUDGE BENCH MilestoneafterMandal:SupremeCourt allowsnewquotaswithinSC/STquota Dalit voices air dissent, fear quota fallout, flag social bias States can decide weak groups; four judges for creamy layer exclusion ANANTHAKRISHNAN G NEW DELHI, AUGUST 1 PAGES 14 & 15 Mathura: HC says suits are maintainable, mosque panel to move SC IN A landmark 6-1 majority ruling Thursday, a seven-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court held that Scheduled Castes do not constitute a socially homogeneous classandcanbesub-classifiedby States for the purpose of providing reservation to the less privileged among them. It said there must be a “rational principle” for such differentiation and the principle must have “a nexus with the purpose of sub-classification”.Fourof the majority ruling judges also favoured excluding the creamy layer from SCs and STs. The majority verdict by Chief Justiceof IndiaD Y Chandrachud CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 The Bench of (from left) Justices Manoj Misra, Bela M Trivedi, B R Gavai, CJI D Y Chandrachud, Vikram Nath, Pankaj Mithal and Satish Chandra Sharma. MOREREPORTS,PAGES10&11 Use data, reason, don’t split to keep out: Apex court lays down red lines APURVA VISHWANATH NEW DELHI, AUGUST 1 E EMPIRICAL DATA, “reasonable” groundsthatwillbe ● subject to judicial scrutiny, avoiding the perils of “micro-classification” — this is how the Supreme Court, in its EXPLAINED ‘WE HADTO FIGURE THINGS OUT ONOUR OWN. IFTHINGS HAVE IMPROVED FOR THE NEXT GENERATION, WONDERFUL’ `5.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 THE EDITORIAL PAGE DEEPENINGJUSTICE Allowing quotas within quotas for SC/STs, apex court expands constitutional guarantee of equality. Now politics has to mediate PAGE 8 verdict allowing sub-classification within Scheduled Castes andScheduledTribesquotas,has underlined the principles that will operationalise the new framework. “It is not sufficient if the principle underlying the classification is relevant or shares a nexus to the purpose. The principle underlying the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SHUBHANGI KHAPRE & DEEPTIMAN TIWARY MUMBAI, NEW DELHI, AUGUST 1 VANCHIT BAHUJAN Aghadi (VBA)’s president Prakash Ambedkar has criticised the Supreme Court’s judgment allowing states to sub-classify the Scheduled Castes (SCs) / Scheduled Tribes (STs) to ensure grantof quotatomorebackward castesinthesegroups,sayingthe ruling “goes against the letter and spirit of reservation enshrined in the Constitution”. Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr B R Ambedkar, said if any sub-classification of these reserved groups has to be carriedout,thenit must bedone by Parliament. Warning about CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 GOVERNORS’ CONFERENCE TODAY Delhi wants Raj Bhavans pro-active, share views when states-Centre differ One of Centre’s suggestions before conference chaired by President HARIKISHAN SHARMA NEW DELHI, AUGUST 1 AT A time when several Governors are locked in conflict with their respective state governments, the Centre has urged them to be more pro-active on social media, connect with the public, and promptly share their views especially when there are differences of opinion between the Centre and the states on policy, The Indian Express has learnt. This is one of a set of suggestions that reportedly finds mention in an official agenda note in the run-up to the two-day Conference of Governors beginning August 2. President Droupadi Murmu will preside over the conference at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Another suggestion, it is learnt,flagstheroleof Governors in improving coordination between various Central agencies INSIDE KARNATAKA GOVT LOCKS HORNS WITH GOVERNOR OVER NOTICE TO CM PAGE 12 and organisations in the state so that they don’t work in silos. Raj Bhavan can help ensure cooperation between these organisations that could make a difference in key aspects of governance including generation of jobs, education, skilling, services and growth, according to the suggestion. The two-day conference will be the first Conference of Governorstobepresidedoverby Murmu. According to an official statement issued by the President’s Secretariat, Governors of all States will attend the Conference. Also CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Shooting delivers third medal for India as Swapnil strikes bronze EXPRESSAT OLYMPICS MIHIR VASAVDA CHATEAUROUX, AUGUST 1 The disputed site in Mathura on Thursday. PTI BHUPENDRA PANDEY & ASAD REHMAN LUCKNOW, NEW DELHI, AUG 1 CLEARING THE decks for hearing the dispute over the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Masjid Idgah in Mathura, the Allahabad High Court Thursday dismissed the mosque committee’s plea challenging the maintainability of 18 suits filed on behalf of the deity and Hindu worshippers. The single-judge bench of Justice Mayank Kumar Jain, upholding the maintainability of the suits, had reserved the verdictonJune6afterhearingarguments of the two sides. “On reading of the plaints as a whole and in a meaningful manner, perusal of the material placed onrecords,consideration of the arguments advanced by the rival parties, and settled legal propositions, I conclude that the plaints in all the suits of the plaintiffs disclose a cause of actionandtheydonotappeartobe barred by any provisions of the Waqf Act, 1995; the Places of Worship(SpecialProvisions)Act, 1991; the Specific Relief Act, 1963; the Limitation Act, 1963 and Order XIII Rule 3A of the Code of Civil Procedure Code, 1908,” the bench said. Itsaidthe applications for rejection of plaints moved in respective suits are liable to be rejected. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Army personnel assemble a Bailey bridge to connect Mundakkai and Chooralmala, the two worst-hit villages in Wayanad. PTI ON A rainy match-day morning, Indian rifle shooter Swapnil Kusale fixed himself a cup of hot tea but couldn't soak in the delightfulweather.“Iwokeupwith butterflies in my stomach,” he said. “I love tea, and hoped it would calm me down.” He wasn’t alone in grappling with anxiety. Far away from the Olympics shooting venue at Chateauroux, in New Delhi’s CR Park, Kusale’s coach Deepali Deshpande was consoling anotherwardof hers,ArjunBabuta, Swapnil Kusale after winning the bronze in the 50m rifle 3-position event at Chateauroux on Thursday. PTI who had returned from Paris afterexperiencingoneofOlympics’ cruellest fates: missing a medal byamarginfinerthanapinhead. In his 10m final earlier in the week, Babuta dropped from the silver medal position to fourth place in the final few shots. When the same happened to Kusale on Thursday, dropping from second place to fourth, Deshpande was bracing for another consolation speech. But it won’t be needed. Instead, when Kusale called CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Wayanad girl’s story on Himachal cloudbursts: RAJKOT nature’s fury turns real: Five dead, 50 missing, Man convicted for minor’s rape after Her father among dead road to Manali damaged quack sentenced for raping same girl SHAJU PHILIP MEPPADI (WAYANAD), AUG 1 IN HER school magazine last year, Class 8 student Laya wrote a story about a girl who drowns in a waterfall but comes back as a bird to warn her village about the dangers of going too close to the water body. In Laya’s short story — written for the Government Vocational Higher Secondary School in Chooralmala’s Vellarmala — the bird tells the villagers: “Children, escape from here (the village). It’s dangerous up ahead.” The children run awaybutwhentheylookbackat thehill,theyseerainwaterflowing down the hill. And they see EXPRESS NETWORK A SEARCH FOR KIN: ‘HOPE TO FIND AT LEAST THEIR BODIES’ PAGE 13 the bird transform into a beautifulgirlwhohasreturnedtowarn them against meeting the same fate as her. Today,Chooralmalahasbeen CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SAURABH PARASHAR GOPAL KATESHIYA FIVE PERSONS were killed and around 50 went missing in the past 24 hours in Himachal Pradeshfollowinga seriesof five cloudburstincidents,whichtriggered flash floods that washed away several buildings, bridges androads,officialssaidThursday. Portions of the ManaliChandigarh National Highway were damaged at many places duetolandslidesandgushingwaters of the river Beas, they said. The cloudbursts were reported in Malana, Sainj and Nirmand areas of Kullu, Rampur in state capital Shimla, and Padhar in Mandi district. SIXTEENMONTHSafteraspecial Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act court sentenced a quack from Upleta town in Rajkot district to life imprisonment for raping his minor sister-in-law, thecourt on Wednesday also convicted the quack'srelativeforrapingthegirl. The police began investigating the second accused after the quack told the POCSO court that theformerhadfatheredthestillbornchildof thegirl,afactwhich was confirmed after remains of the child were exhumed and DNA tests carried out. The court of A M Shaikh, spe- SHIMLA, AUGUST 1 RAJKOT, AUGUST 1 The damaged highway from Manali to Chandigarh in Kullu district, Thursday. PTI AcloudburstatRajbanvillage in Padhar subdivision of Mandi late Wednesday left three persons, including two women, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 cial POCSO judge of Dhoraji in Rajkot,onWednesdayhelda24year-old autorickshaw driver guilty of raping the girl after taking her to Rajkot from Upleta in December 2020 after the quack, with whom she used to live, was arrested for raping her. The driver was sentenced to life imprisonment and fined Rs 5,000 after he was convicted underSection376(2)(n)(repeatedly raping the same woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section6(aggravatedpenetrative sexual assault) of the POCSO Act. However, the court acquitted himundersections363(kidnapping) and 366 (kidnapping a womanwithanintentiontoforcing her to marrying her against her will) of the IPC, as the minor told the court that the autorickshawdriverhadnotabductedher but she had willingly gone with him after the quack was jailed and her father passed away. The order of the court became available on Thursday. According to the prosecution’s case, the girl — then 14 years old — and her younger brother,startedtostaywiththeir sisterafterhermarriagewiththe quack. During her stay at his home, the quack repeatedly raped her for around three years and got her pregnant. Whenshecomplainedabout stomach ache to a neighbour of thequack,theneighbouralerted the police. Subsequently, the girl's father filed a police CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Bomb smuggled into Iran guesthouse months ago killed Hamas leader PAGE 1 ANCHOR RONEN BERGMAN, MARK MAZZETTI & FARNAZ FASSIHI TEL AVIV, WASHINGTON DC, AUGUST 1 ISMAILHANIYEH,atopleaderof Hamas, was assassinated Wednesday by an explosive device covertly smuggled into the Tehranguesthousewherehewas staying, according to seven Middle Eastern officials, includingtwoIranians,andaUSofficial. The bomb had been hidden approximately two months ago in the guesthouse, according to five of the Middle Eastern officials. The guesthouse is run and protected by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and is part of a large compound, known as Neshat, in an upscale neighborhood of northern Tehran. Haniyeh was in Iran’s capital forthepresidentialinauguration. The bomb was detonated remotely, the five officials said, once it was confirmed that he wasinsidehisroomattheguesthouse. The blast also killed a bodyguard. The explosion shook the building, shattered some windows and caused the partial col- lapse of an exterior wall, according to the two Iranian officials, members of the Revolutionary Guard briefed on the incident. Suchdamagewasalsoevidentin a photograph of the building sharedwithTheNewYorkTimes. Haniyeh, who had led Hamas’ political office in Qatar, had stayed at the guesthouse A July 25 satellite photo of the Tehran guesthouse where Ismail Haniyeh (left) stayed during his visit to Iran. NYT several times when visiting Tehran, according to the Middle Eastern officials. All of the officials spoke on the condition of anonymitytosharesensitivedetails about the assassination. Iranian officials and Hamas said Wednesday that Israel was responsiblefortheassassination, an assessment also reached by several US officials who requested anonymity. The assassinationthreatenedtounleashanother wave of violence in the Middle East and upend the ongoing negotiations to end the war in the Gaza Strip. Haniyeh had been a top negotiator in the cease-fire talks. Israel has not publicly ac- knowledged responsibility for thekilling,butIsraeliintelligence officialsbriefedtheUSandother Westerngovernmentsonthedetails of the operation in the immediate aftermath, according to the five Middle Eastern officials. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US had received no advance knowledge of the assassination plot. In the hours after the killing, speculationimmediatelyfocused on the possibility that Israel had killed Haniyeh with a missile strike,possiblyfiredfromadrone or a plane, similar to how Israel had launched a missile on a militarybaseinIsfahan,Iran,inApril. That missile theory raised questions about how Israel might have been able to evade Iranian air defence systems again to execute such a brazen airstrike in the capital. As it turns out, the assassins were able to exploit a different kind of gap in Iran’s defences: a lapse in the security of a supposedly tightly guarded compound that allowed a bomb to be plantedandtoremainhiddenfor many weeks before it would eventually be triggered. Suchabreach,threeIranianofficialssaid,wasacatastrophicfailureofintelligenceandsecurityfor Iran and a tremendous embarrassment for the Revolutionary CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Ahmedabad