The Editorial Page: Bringing back Indian-origin faculty will need changes in policy, culture 8 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2025 JOURNALISM of COURAGE MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES ₹5.00 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 REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 HEARINg ON PLEAS CHALLENgINg S.I.R. Can intruder with Aadhaar be allowed to vote, asks SC 27/11/2025 95 123 152 92 Happening today 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. If case made out, can always direct ECI to extend draft roll publication deadline, says CJI-led bench ● Mumbai, November 26 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"todelivera controversy-free Games, unlike the 2010 edition in New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi,inapostonX,said:“Delig- »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2 »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2 Forest Survey had red-flagged but Govt took green shield off ArAVAllIHIlls E. exclusive New Delhi, November 26 ON NOVEMBER 20, the Supreme Court accepted the recommendations of a Union Environment Ministry panel on thedefinitionofAravalliHillsostensibly to restrict mining: any landform that is at an elevation of100mormoreabovethelocal 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. For, as per an internal assessment by the Forest Survey INrAjAsTHAN Above 100m 8.7% ≤100m 1,048 Jay Mazoomdaar ● ≤80m 1,594 EXPrEss ≤60m 2,656 MAHARASHTRA CHIEF Minister Devendra Fadnavis said Wednesday that he will write a letter to Prime Minister Narendra ModiandtheUnionEducationMinisterDharmendraPradhan,requestingrenamingofthe Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay as IIT Mumbai. The decision comes in the wake of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray’s sharp criticism of BJP Union minister Jitendra Singh’s remarks: “Thank God, IITBombayhasnotchangedits name to IIT Mumbai.” Responding to media questions on the renaming controversy,Fadnavissaid,“Everybody knows Bombay was renamed as MumbaibecauseoftheBJPgovernment at the Centre and the BJP coalition in the state. It was the sporting ecosystem. It is our collective commitment and spirit of sportsmanship that has 100-METRE HEIgHT CUTOff fOR DEfININg ARAVALLI HILLS 5,009 Mumbai, November 26 hted that India has won the bid tohosttheCentenaryCommonwealth Games 2030. CongratulationstothepeopleofIndiaand ≤40m Express News Service The Indian delegation in Glasgow included Gujarat Deputy CM Harsh Sanghavi and IOA president PT Usha. IOA/GUjARAT GOVERNMENT 12,081 fadnavis:Will writetoPM Modi,Pradhan torenameIIT BombayasIIT Mumbai ● Mihir Vasavda ≤20m By EP UNNY Ahmedabad to host 2030 CWG; ready to welcome world, says PM 1,07,494 Business as Usual 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 REPORT,PAGE 10 Up to 20m 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. ● We, the People of India Source: FSI analyses of data, data from 15 districts 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 EXPlAINED Why it matters for NCR pollution 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. in the north to Gujarat in the south through Haryana and Rajasthan. Rajasthan accounts for nearly two-thirds of the mountain range. For decades, the hills have been under severe pressure from mining, bothlegalandillegal,andother »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2 2-0 SERIES LOSS TO SOUTH AFRICA AFTER 3-0 WHITEWASH AGAINST NEW ZEALAND LAST YEAR Beating India in India used to be a dream, now it is being sold free Sriram Veera AndGautamGambhirhasbeen the coach who has watched Rome burn on both occasions. BEATING INDIA in India in India lost the second Test at Test cricket used to be a career Guwahati by 408 runs, and the goal, a dream for most overseas series 0-2. It was their biggest teams.The‘finalfrontier’asthe Test defeat by runs. It was also Australian great Baggy Green- South Africa’s first series win in er Steve Waugh Indiain25years.The termed it. Even he Indian batsmen PAGE 1 never managed to averaged 15.23 in the breach the fortress. two Tests, the secThese days, that ond-lowest for them dreamissellingfree,alongwith in any Test series, and worst at flightticketstoIndia.First,New home. Until last November, Zealand with a 3-0 whitewash India had lost just two series at late last year, without their tal- home since 2000. Now, in a isman Kane Williamson, and year’stime,theyhavelosttwice. now,SouthAfrica,withouttheir Seldom has a long-held lodestar pacer Kagiso Rabada. dominant home record been Mumbai, November 26 anchor Gautam Gambhir and Rishabh Pant at the ACA Stadium, Barsapara in Guwahati, on Wednesday. PTI surrendered so meekly. Even West Indies’s Test embers at home flickered briefly after the retirement of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh. Australia are still hanging on to theirs andhenceIndia’stwotriumphs there are treasured. South Africa too denied India even after AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla and Dale Steyn retired. Losing isn’t a crime, but India whimpered out without a fight. The stand-in captain RishabhPantsaidpithily,“it'sa little disappointing, you know, but as a team we need to get better.” Gambhir put up a combative front on his own future as coach. “It’s up to the BCCI to decide... I'm the same guy who »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 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, stayinginIndia,somebodyworking asapoorrickshaw-puller,somebodyworkingasalabourerona constructionsite,ifyouissuean Aadhaar card to him so that he can avail benefit of subsidised ration or for any benefit, that’s somethingpartofourconstitutional ethos, that is our constitutional morality. But does it mean that because he has been giventhisbenefit,hemustnow be made a voter also?” he said. The CJI made these remarks when Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the states of West Bengal and Kerala, raised the issue of exclusion of voters despite being in possession of Aadhaar cards. Sibal said, “There is a presumption. A self-declaration, I am a citizen. I live here. There is an Aadhaar card that I have. That’s my residence. You want to take it away, take it away through a process. And that processmustbeestablishedbefore Your Lordship.” »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2 SC frowns on ‘growing trend’ of own benches reversing Court orders Ananthakrishnan g 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 recent past, we have rather painfully observed” the “growing trendinthisCourt(ofwhichwe too are an indispensable part)”, the bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and A G Masih said, “To us, the object of Article 141 of the Constitution seems to be this: the pronouncement of a verdictbyabenchonaparticularissueoflaw(arisingoutofthe factsinvolved)shouldsettlethe controversy, being final, and has to be followed by all courts aslawdeclaredbytheSupreme Court. However, if a verdict is allowedtobereopenedbecause alaterdifferentviewappearsto be better, the very purpose of enacting Article 141 would stand defeated.” Dismissing the plea of a murder accused seeking relaxation of his bail conditions, the »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2