The Editorial Page: In war on Iran, Israel knows what it wants — US does not 8 TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2026 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 Happening today lA NINE-JUDGE Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court is scheduled to commence the hearing on the contentious issue of defining the word “industry” under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. TRACK THIS AND MORE ON www.INDIANExPrEss.cOm Business as Usual By EP UNNY MODEL CODE IN PLACE AFTER EC ANNOUNCED POLL DATES ON SUNDAY In 24 hours, EC replaces Mamata govt top officers Bengal CM says reshuffle done at behest of BJP Ravik Bhattacharya & Sweety Kumari Kolkata, March 16 IN LESS than 24 hours of announcing the dates for the Assembly elections in West Bengal, the Election Commission (EC) removed top administrativeandpoliceofficersinthe state,triggeringasharpreaction from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The reshuffle began late Sunday night as the EC sent a INsIDE pAgE 4 IN EC’S SwEEpINg rEjIg, wHo ALL mADE IT To Top lettertoChiefSecretaryNandini Chakraborty,informingherthat she and state Home Secretary Jagdish Prasad Meena have beensubstitutedwithDushyant Nariala and Sanghamitra Ghosh, respectively. In a letter sent to the chief secretary, the EC said “the officers transferred out” — Nandini Chakraborty and Jagdish Prasad Meena – “shall not be posted in any election-related »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Amaal Sheikh THE ALLAHABAD High Court judge who requested the Chief Justice not to assign him the bail roster recently — after one of his bail orders was described as “most shocking and disappointing” by the Supreme Court — has overwhelmingly orderedbailinthedowrydeath cases heard by his Bench. An analysis by The Indian Expressofthe510publiclyavail- CM Mamata Banerjee at a rally against the Central government’s move to hike prices of LPG cylinders, in Kolkata Monday. PARTHA PAUL Setback for Opp: No-shows, cross-vote in Bihar, Odisha Sujit Bisoyi AN EARLY-MORNING fire at one of Odisha’s largest government-runhospitalskilled10patients admitted to the ICU and left several others fighting for their lives. A preliminary probe into the fire, which broke out a little after 2:30 am on Monday, indicatesthatasuspectedelectrical short circuit was the cause. Officials probing the blaze saidthataprimafacieprobeindicated several gaps in the hospital’s preparedness to tackle such an incident — from a defunct fire safety system to a delayedcalltothefirebrigade.The stategovernmenthasordereda judicial probe into the matter. “The fire sprinkler system didn’t work as the tap (control valve) was closed. Also, the fire warning system didn’t go off as the switch had been off for the »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 LATEST l WE DON’T kNOW... IF HE’S DEAD OR NOT: TRUMP ON MOjTABA kHAMENEI l OvER 200 IRANIAN CHILDREN kILLED IN BOMBINGS: ARAGHCHI MORE REPORTS, PAGES 11, 12 Opp accuses BJP of threatening its legislators New Delhi, March 16 Patna, Bhubaneswar, New Delhi, March 16 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 MLAs wait to cast their votes in the Rajya Sabha polls, at the Bihar Vidhan Sabha in Patna on Monday. ANI RELATED REPORT, PAGE 5 MALAYSIA DECLARES U.S. TRADE DEAL VOID, EU PUTS IT ON HOLD India seeks safeguards as US works on new tariff structure No standoff, signing of deal after Delhi assured of comparative edge: Official Ravi Dutta Mishra New Delhi, March 16 THE INDIA-US framework trade agreement, which was agreeduponjustdaysbeforethe US Supreme Court declared President Donald Trump’s sweepingtariffsundertheInter- NIAarrestssix Ukrainians,one fromUSfor plottingterror activitiesinIndia Nirbhay Thakur & Mahender Singh Manral Santosh Singh, Sujit Bisoyi & Manoj C G THEKEENLYwatchedelections on Monday for 11 vacant Rajya Sabha seats — five in Bihar, four inOdishaandtwoinHaryana— dealtasetbacktotheOpposition, Structure, language, bond amount similar across bail orders by Justice Pankaj Bhatia between Oct and Dec 2025 New Delhi, March 16 OdishaICUblaze CONTEST FOR 11 RAJYA SABHA SEATS ACROSS 3 STATES kills10,probe pointstodelayed firecall,defunct sprinklers Cuttack, March 16 SC rap to Allahabad HC judge over bail in dowry death: In 3 months, he gave bail in 508 of 510 such cases national Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) illegal, would be signed after Washington puts in place a new tariff architecture which safeguards India’s comparative advantage in the US market, a senior government official said Monday. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E. ExPlAINED Behind the deal While India has signalled it would stick to the pact that had been finalised before the US Supreme Court’s IEEPA order, it is conditional to Washington ensuring a comparative tariff advantage for Indian products. THE NATIONAL Investigation Agency(NIA)hasarrestedseven foreign nationals — six Ukrainian nationals and one from the United States — on charges of conspiring to carry out terrorist activities against India. The arrests, made in a coordinated operation by multiple NIA teams last week, were made under Section 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), along with other relevant sections. An FIR in the case was registered on Friday evening. The US national was detained by the Bureau of Immigration at Kolkata airport, and three Ukrainians each were detained at airports in Lucknow and Delhi. A source said that the accused had entered India on valid visas, but had proceeded to Mizoram without the mandatory Restricted Area Permit. “From there, they crossed into Myanmar, where they reportedly met ethnic groups hostile to India. Investigations also uncovered that multiple consignments of drones from Europeweredeliveredbythem in Mizoram,” the source said. The suspects were brought to Delhi and produced before the duty Magistrate on Saturday, who remanded them in »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Kolkata ableregularbailordersindowry circumstancesofdeathdiffered. While setting aside a bail death cases passed by the single-judge Bench headed by order by Justice Bhatia on Febhim between October and De- ruary9,aSupremeCourtBench of Justices J B cember 2025 Pardiwalaand shows that ExPrEss K V VishwaJusticePankaj nathan obBhatia gave served: “We bail in 508 — fail to understand on plain or 99.61% of the total cases. Moreover, the structure and reading of the impugned order language of the bail orders, as as to what the High Court is well as the bond amount or- trying to convey… what dered by Justice Bhatia, were weighedwiththeHighCourtin »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 similaracrosscases,thoughthe investigation