Shashi Tharoor among Cong 5 MPs seek 'transparency and fairness' in party chief poll

Hindenburg Research, the entity which shorted Adani stocks and led to a massive crash in the conglomerate's market value, has posted a cryptic message on social media platform X, wherein it said, "Something big soon India".

Their post has already started garnering a lot of attention, with many X users slamming the short seller based on the recent Sebi show cause notice to the firm regarding the Adani issue.

"Tool kit activated to distract more from Bangladesh," one user commented.

"Like the actual Hindenburg, I find your India coverage to be mostly hot air," another said.

Adani Enterprises had decided not to proceed with a debut retail bond offering of up to Rs 1000 crore last year after US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research accused the group of improper use of offshore tax havens and stock manipulation.

Adani Group denied Hindenburg's allegations, but shares of its group companies lost more than $100 billion in value before recovering in late 2023.

Hindenburg Research had shared an advance copy of its damning report against Adani group with New York-based hedge fund manager Mark Kingdon about two months before publishing it and profited from a deal to share spoils from share price movement, according to market regulator Sebi.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), in its 46-page show cause notice to Hindenburg, detailed how the US short seller, the New York hedge fund and a broker tied to Kotak Mahindra Bank benefited from the over $150 billion routs in the market value of Adani group's 10 listed firms post-publication of the report.

Sebi charged Hindenburg of making "unfair" profits from "collusion" to use "non-public" and "misleading" information and induce "panic selling" in Adani Group stocks.

Hindenburg, which made public the Sebi notice, in its response, has described the show cause as an attempt to "silence and intimidate those who expose corruption and fraud perpetrated by the most powerful individuals in India" and revealed that the vehicle used to bet against Adani's flagship firm Adani Enterprises Ltd belonged to Kotak Mahindra (International) Ltd, a Mauritius-based subsidiary of Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. 

New Delhi: A bill to amend the law governing Waqf boards has proposed far-reaching changes in the present Act, including ensuring the representation of Muslim women and non-Muslims in such bodies.

The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, set for introduction in the Lok Sabha, also aims at renaming the Waqf Act, 1995, as the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act, 1995.

The bill was circulated among Lok Sabha members on Tuesday night ahead of its introduction.

According to its statement of objects and reasons, the bill seeks to omit Section 40 of the current law relating to the powers of the board to decide if a property is Waqf property.

It provides for a broad-based composition of the Central Waqf Council and the State Waqf Boards and ensures the representation of Muslim women and non-Muslims in such bodies.

The bill also proposes the establishment of a separate Board of Auqaf for the Boharas and Aghakhanis. The draft law provides for the representation of Shias, Sunnis, Bohras, Agakhanis and other backward classes among Muslim communities.

The bill also aims to clearly define "'Waqf' as Waqf by any person practising Islam for at least five years and having ownership of such property".

One of its objectives is streamlining the manner of registration of Waqfs through a central portal and database. A detailed procedure is established for mutation as per revenue laws with due notice to all concerned before recording any property as a Waqf property.

The Wakf Act, 1995, was brought to regulate 'Auqaf' (assets donated and notified as Waqf) by a 'wakif' (the person who dedicates a property for any purpose recognised by Muslim law as religious or charitable).

The Act was last amended in 2013.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside the Calcutta High Court order asking adolescent girls to control their sexual urges.

A Bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said it has also explained in detail on how courts should write judgments.

The verdict came in a suo motu case initiated in the wake of a Calcutta High Court ruling that had called for adolescent girls to "control" their sexual urges instead of "giving in to two minutes of pleasure".

It had sparked controversy since it proposed a 'duty/obligation based approach' for teenagers, and suggested that adolescent females and males have different duties.

The Supreme Court had taken suo motu coginzance of the same in December 2023, opining that the comments made by the High Court were sweeping, objectionable, irrelevant, preachy and unwarranted.

The top court had also remarked that the High Court ruling sent wrong signals.

In the case before High Court, the  division bench of Justices Chitta Ranjan Dash and Partha Sarathi Sen had acquitted a youth, who was convicted for raping a minor girl, with whom he had a 'romantic affair'.

Today, the top court restored the conviction and said a committee of experts will take a call on his sentence.

Senior Advocates Madhavi Divan and Liz Mathew were amici curiae in the matter.

Senior Advocate Huzefa Ahmadi and advocate Astha Sharma appeared for State of West Bengal, which also had filed an appeal against the High Court verdict.