A look at the top headlines right now:

  1. Winter Session ends before schedule, RS chairman asks MPs to introspect about what went wrong: The Upper House witnessed repeated disruptions because 12 Rajya Sabha members from five Opposition parties had been suspended for the rest of the session on November 29.
  2. Videos of seers, BJP’s Ashwini Upadhyay calling for killing of Muslims, Hindu rashtra spark anger: At two separate events in Delhi and Haridwar, speakers like Sudarshan News Editor Suresh Chavhanke, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ashwini Upadhyay and seer Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati asked Hindus to buy weapons for genocide against Muslims.
  3. Delhi bans Christmas, New Year gatherings as Covid-19 cases surge: In an order, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority noted that it had placed a ban on gatherings and congregations on December 15 but the restrictions were not complied with.
  4. Jharkhand passes Bill to prevent mob violence and lynching, provides up to life term for culprits: The Bill defines lynching as “any act or series of acts of violence or death...whether spontaneous or planned, by a mob on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth, language, dietary practices, sexual orientation, political affiliation, ethnicity or any other ground”.
  5. Centre issues look out notice against Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia in drugs case: The first information report against Majithia has invoked Sections 25 (allowing premises to be used for commission of an offence), 27A (financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders) and 29 (abetment and criminal conspiracy) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
  6. Eight activists say they were denied bail in Bhima Koregaon case over factual error in court order: On December 1, the court had denied default bail to eight accused persons – Sudhir Dhawale, P Varavara Rao, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Professor Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira – they had not applied for the bail on time.
  7. Urban Company seeks legal stay on protests by women workers in Gurugram: Since December 20, around 50 women ‘partners’ at the home services provider have been protesting against changes in its policy in the beauty category.
  8. National security is the ‘ultimate holy cow’ across the country, says Madras High Court: The judge made the observations while quashing a case filed against a man for his innocuous social media post.
  9. Centre disagrees with India’s rank on World Press Freedom Index: In March, Reporters Without Borders had said that India ranked 142 out of 180 countries when it comes to press freedom. It had added that the nation was classified as “bad” for journalism.
  10. Sony Pictures, Zee Entertainment sign deal to merge TV channels, film assets and streaming services: Sony will hold 52.93% stake in the merged company whereas Zee will have 47.04%.