The Editorial Page: Bringing back Indian-origin faculty will need changes in policy, culture 8 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2025 JOURNALISM of COURAGE KOLKATA, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES ₹6.00 (₹12 in North East states, ₹20 in Andaman) l www.indianexpress.com DA I LY F R O M : A H M E DA B A D , C H A N D I GA R H , D E L H I , j A I P U R , KO L K ATA , L U C K N O W , M U M B A I , N AG P U R , PAT N A , P U N E , VA D O DA R A Ahmedabad to host 2030 CWG; ready to welcome world, says PM India to push for yoga as medal sport; badminton, hockey, wrestling, T20 cricket and shooting may see return HEARINg ON plEAS CHAllENgINg S.I.R. We, the People of India TEN Of INDIA'S recent ICC Women's World Cup winners — including player of the tournament Deepti Sharma and breakout stars Sree Charani and Kranti Gaud — are in the pool for the Women's Premier League mega auction which starts at 3.30 pm. ● PARTHA SkIPS cOURT HEARINg, jUdgE SAYS cAN cANcEL HIS bAIL SHAHjAHAN SHEIkH’S cLOSE AIdE ARRESTEd Jay Mazoomdaar New Delhi, November 26 ON NOVEMBER 20, the Supreme Court accepted the recommendations of a Union Environment Ministry panel on the definition of Aravalli Hills ostensibly to restrict mining: any landform that is at an elevation of 100 m or more above the local relief will be considered as part of Aravalli Hills along with its slopes and adjacent land. What the panel did not mention is that by this definition,morethan90%oftheAravali Hills will not be counted as Aravallianymoreandbepotentially open to mining and construction with severe environmental ramifications, including the quality of air in the National Capital Region. ArAVAllIhIlls INrAjAsThAN ● Above 100m E. EXPlAINED Why it matters for NcR pollution Source: FSI analyses of data, data from 15 districts As air pollution tightens its chokehold on Delhi, the contribution of the Aravallis assumes importance. While the upper Aravalli is an important barrier to finer pollutants like PM2.5, the lower hills block heavier sand particles. Together, they also function as key wildlife corridors between protected areas, such as Sariska and Ranthambhore. For, as per an internal assessment by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), reviewed by The IndianExpress, barely 1,048, or just8.7%,of12,081AravalliHills 20morhigher,spreadacross15 districts in Rajasthan, are 100 m or more in height. The 20m height cut-off is crucial for a hill'sfunctionasawindbarrier. Aravalli extends from Delhi in the north to Gujarat in the south through Haryana and Rajasthan. Rajasthan accounts for nearly two-thirds of the moun- 8.7% ≤100m 1,048 exclusive ≤80m 1,594 ● EXPrEss 5,009 PAgE 3 Can intruder with Aadhaar be allowed to vote, asks SC If case made out, can always direct ECI to extend draft roll publication Forest Survey of India underlined importance of lower hills as barriers to sand, deadline, says CJI-led bench dust flowing east; Secretary says SC appreciated panel’s recommendations ≤60m 2,656 THE CONgRESS’S TOp leadership will meet in the Capital to review the party’s recent Bihar poll debacle. The party won only six Assembly seats, down from 19 in 2020. BENGAl Forest Survey had red-flagged but Govt took green shield off 90% Aravalli Hills ≤40m happening today »CONTINUED ON pAgE 2 REASON: ITS NEW 100-METRE HEIgHT CUTOff fOR DEfININg ARAVAllI HIllS 12,081 WITH THE Commonwealth Sport’s General Assembly in Glasgow on Wednesday formally confirming Ahmedabad as the venue of the 2030 Commonwealth Games, India is likely to push for the inclusion of yoga as a medal sport at the centenary edition. Indian officials said they were "well-prepared" to deliver a controversy-free Games, unlike the 2010 edition in New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a post on X, said: “Delighted that India has won the bid to host the Centenary Commonwealth Games 2030. Con- gratulations to the people of India and the sporting ecosystem. It is our collective commitment and spirit of sportsmanship that has placed India firmly on the global sporting map... We look forward to welcoming the world”. India would “prefer” that the event be held in October 2030, Ashwini Kumar, principal secretary, Gujarat government, said, adding that the exact dates would be worked out closely with Commonwealth Sport. As the host, India can propose up to two new or traditional sports. An official from the Indian delegation said one of the sports identified is yoga. ≤20m Mumbai, November 26 1,07,494 Mihir Vasavda Up to 20m The Indian delegation in Glasgow included Gujarat Deputy CM Harsh Sanghavi and IOA president PT Usha. IOA/GUjARAT GOVERNMENT President Droupadi Murmu, Vice President C P Radhakrishnan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Union Ministers J P Nadda and Kiren Rijiju, and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge read the Preamble during Constitution Day celebrations at Central Hall on Wednesday. PTI REPORTS, P 3, 6 tain range. For decades, the hills have been under severe pressure from mining, both legal and illegal, and other development activities such as construction. Last year, the SC had asked the government to come up with an uniform definition of the Aravalli. While the FSI has been using a 3-degree slope yardstick to define Aravalli Hills since 2010, a technical committee formed for the purpose in 2024 modified the benchmark and proposed to identify as Aravalli Hills any landformwithaslopeofatleast 4.57 degrees and a height of at least 30m. These yardsticks would effectively cover upto 40% of the Aravallis. Yet, the ministry prescribed the 100-m definition to the SC in an unsigned report as part of its affidavit. It also conflated slope and height parameters to justify the new definition, proposed subjective height »CONTINUED ON pAgE 2 Ananthakrishnan g New Delhi, November 26 AMID THE political debate on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in states, the Supreme Court inquired Wednesday if “intruders” who may have Aadhaar cards to avail social security benefits should also be allowed to vote. Hearing arguments on petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the SIR exercise, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, heading a bench that also had Justice Joymalya Bagchi, said, “Aadhaar card is the creation of a statute (and valid) to the extent that it acknowledges the benefits or privileges based upon it. Nobody can dispute that. After all, anAadhaarcardispreparedfor Kolkata, November 26 SC frowns on ‘growing trend’ of own benches reversing Court orders Beating India in India used to be a dream, now it is being sold free Ananthakrishnan g By EP UNNY Sriram Veera New Delhi, November 26 A TWO-JUDGE bench of the Supreme Court Wednesday red-flagged what it called a “growingtrendin”thetopcourt “of verdicts pronounced by Judges,whetherstillinofficeor not and irrespective of the time ● lapse since pronounced, being overturned by succeeding benches or specially constituted benches at the behest of some party aggrieved by the verdicts prior in point of time” and said this “would undermine” the “court’s authority”. Observing that “in the »CONTINUED ON pAgE 2 2-0 SERIES lOSS TO SOUTH AfRICA Mumbai, November 26 BEATING INDIA in India in Test cricket used to be a career goal,adreamformostoverseas teams.The‘finalfrontier’asthe Australian great Baggy Greener Steve Waugh termed it. Even henevermanagedtobreachthe Gautam Gambhir, Rishabh Pant in Guwahati, on Wednesday. PTI fortress.Thesedays,thatdream is selling free, along with flight ticketstoIndia.First,NewZealand with a 3-0 whitewash late lastyear,withouttheirtalisman Kane Williamson, and now, South Africa, without their lodestar pacer Kagiso Rabada. AndGautamGambhirhasbeen »CONTINUED ON pAgE 2 »CONTINUED ON pAgE 2 EC says ‘security breach’ by protesting BLOs, asks report from Kolkata Police Sweety Kumari business as Usual a particular object and a particular statute. There can’t be any dispute on that.” “Suppose there are persons who intrude from a different country, from neighbouring countries they come to India, they are working in India, staying in India, somebody working as a poor rickshaw-puller, somebody working as a labourer on a construction site, if you issue an Aadhaar card to him so that he can avail benefit of subsidised ration or for any benefit, that’s something part ofourconstitutionalethos,that is our constitutional morality. But does it mean that because he has been given this benefit, he must now be made a voter also?” he said. The CJI made these THE ELECTION Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday wrote to Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma, alleging “serious security breach” during the ongoing protest by booth-level officers (BLOs)attheChiefElectoralOfficer’s office in Kolkata, and sought an action-taken report within 48 hours. “Iamdirectedtostatethatit has come to the notice of the Election Commission of India that on 24.11.2025 a serious security breach has occurred at the office of the Chief Electoral Officer,WestBengal,whichhas alsobeenwidelyreportedinthe media,” the letter stated. “The existing security in the officeoftheCEOappearedtobe inadequate to handle the situation, which could lead to a threat to the safety and security of the Chief Electoral Officer, Additional Chief Electoral Officers, Joint Chief Electoral Officers, Deputy Chief Electoral Officers and other officers and staff working in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer,” the letter added. The ECI expressed serious concern regarding the incident and instructed the police to »CONTINUED ON pAgE 2 SHE WANTS DESPERATELY TO RETURN HOME, AND TO DELIVER THE BABY IN INDIA, SAYS SOCIAL ACTIVIST WHO MET HER As SC orders her return from Bangladesh, clock ticks for pregnant Sunali Ravik Bhattacharya Court suggested to the Centre that the residents of Bengal deported to Bangladesh on the EVERY DAY that passes, every suspicionofbeingforeignersbe court hearing that raises “false brought back as an interim hopes”, what they dread the measure and given the oppormost inches closer, says the tunity of a hearing. It asked for the Centre’s refamily of Sunali Khatun. Pregnant when deported around sponse, posting the matter for five months ago, the 25-year- next hearing on December 1. The case reached the Suold could go into labour any preme Court after time in the Banglathe Centre moved it desh jail where she is PAGE 1 following a Calcutta lodged. As her lawHigh Court order on yer in Bangladesh September 26 orderputs it, “a baby born in foreign land will further add ingthereturnofSunali,herhusto the legal complexities” band Danish and their eightyear-old son, apart from three around Sunali’s case. On Tuesday, the Supreme members of another family deKolkata, November 26 anchor ported along with them. Speaking to The Indian Express over the phone from Paikar village in Birbhum, a despondent Bhodu Sheikh, Sunali’s father, says: “First, the High Court ordered that they be brought back within four weeks. But that passed and nothing happened. Then a Bangladesh court declared them Indian citizens and ordered their pushback. Nothing happened. Now I hear the Supreme Court has asked the government to bring them back.” Sheikh admits “a ray of hope” – but just. “It is the highest court of the country… However, we will not believe (she Sunali's father, Bhodu Sheikh, at his Paikar village home in Birbhum. He says SC order is a ray of hope, but won’t believe until she returns will return) until we see her in the flesh.” Speaking to The Indian Express, Sunali’s lawyer at the Chapainawabganj District Court in Bangladesh, Advocate Shofiq Enaetullah, says the Indian High Commission was sent a letter by the court seeking initiation of “the pushback process”. “On October 3, the court deemed Sunali and others as Indian citizens. The court sent a letter to The Indian Embassy in Dhaka… We fear thatifthebabyisbornhere,her nationalitywillcomeintoquestion, and this will further delay Sunali’s return.” The court will hear the case Kolkata next on November 30, and Enaetullahfearsthat“theframing of charges will start soon”. “After that, if a guilty verdict is given,theissueworsens.Under the sections that she and the others are charged, they will be in jail for a year. Then repatriation or pushback will not be possible until they have served their sentence.” On Sunali’s condition, the lawyer adds: “All care is being takenbytheauthoritiesregarding the health of every one, including children.” Mofizul Islam, a social worker whom Sunali’s family knows and who is in Chapainawabganjhelpingwiththecourt proceedings, says: “We have information that she underwent anultrasoundrecently,andthat the baby is okay. But we are yet to get her medical report.” Islam says he met Sunali and the others at the court on November 20. “She was crying. Shewantsdesperatelytoreturn home, and to deliver the baby in India because she has heard that otherwise it would be tough for her to go back. She also said the jail authorities were taking good care of her.” Islam says they have employed three lawyers, and provided clothes for the winter to the imprisoned. »CONTINUED ON pAgE 2