US-German trio wins medicine Nobel for illuminating the brain tuesdAY 06 The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded on Monday to three scientists for their pioneering work in the neuroscience field of optogenetics october, 2026 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard F ly d u b a i NZ, Aus probe pilot’s activities Karl Deisseroth A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS Page 9 l New Delhi Didn’t approve change to ECI’s Form 6, says SC Says will annul unilateral decisions; rejects plea to suspend CEC su c h i tra K alyan M ohanty @ New Delhi express read 16 weather stations record ‘poor’ AQI Sixteen of Delhi’s 44 air quality stations recorded pollution levels in the “poor” category on Monday, while the overall AQI stood at 184 in the “moderate” category. The city recorded a maximum temperature of 36.6 degrees Celsius, but logged a feels-like value of 40.8 degrees Celsius in the evening. The MCD has announced a winter action plan to curb pollution. P3 B’deshi woman raped, 3 J’khand cops booked Three police personnel have been suspended and an FIR lodged against them following allegations that they raped a Bangladeshi woman lodged at a Hazaribagh detention centre. The incident came to light after the District Legal Services Authority flagged the matter in its report, which was brought to the high court’s notice. We will examine all the decisions. If any decision is not in accordance with the law, we will annul it. You know the power of the court — Chief Justice Surya Kant 1 One plea contended that under Article 324, ECI is mandated by law to take decisions by unanimity 2 The petition raised additional concerns over electoral roll revisions in Goa and West Bengal up in the wake of a recent report stating that two Election Commissioners had objected to changes made during SIR, including modifications to Form 6 requiring details of an applicant’s ancestry and a link to the previous SIR, which the petitioners said was arbitrary . The bench tagged the plea with a petition by Patna resident Rakesh Kumar Singh through senior advocate Vikas Singh. Tripathi alleged that the changes were introduced through EC software without following statutory procedure, adding the two ECs, Dr Vivek Joshi and Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, noted on file that the changes were “unauthorised and illegal” and sought their immediate rescission. The ECI’s DG-IT Seema Khanna had “no legal authority” to curtail Electoral Registration Officers’ (ERO) access to ECI 3 SC ruling came ahead of a proposed protest outside EC HQ on Tuesday by INDIA bloc parties Net, he said. The plea alleged violation of collective decisionmaking and sought criminal proceedings against Kumar. The second petition, filed by Rakesh Singh and others, claimed SIR in Bihar and other states, rationalisation of polling booths and model code enforcement were decided by the CEC alone. Senior advocate Vikas Singh cited the 2023 Anoop Baranwal judgment, and argued collective decision-making was essential to avoid a perception of bias, and that the other two ECs could run ECI if Kumar were suspended. “If there is any violation, we will undo (it),” the CJI said. “Let the Election Commission file its affidavit.” The court declined to suspend Kumar or pass any interim direction, saying it could not do so without hearing the respondents. It cautioned that an ex-parte suspension would stall the ECI’s functioning. “Who will conduct the elections?” the bench asked. p7 ACP with sexual assault charges gets promotion commissioner of police. On Saturday, the journalist Police top brass chose a ra- had said, “I asked ACP Vivek her awkward time to promote a Bhagat about the absence of controversial assistant com- women police personnel, folmissioner of police (ACP) de- lowing which he sexually asputed in the New Delsaulted me.” Two othhi district. On er women journalists 4 FIRs, 18 Monday the Delhi Po, complained of sexual arrested lice upg raded the harassment by other Delhi Police has ranks of 12 DANIPS cops. Police translodged four FIRs officers when Lutyferred the complaints and arrested ens’ zone is witnesst o C r i m e B r a n ch 18 people in ing daily protests without an FIR. On connection with against Chief ElecMonday, the police violence during tion Commissioner said, “These allegaprotests against Gyanesh Kumar. tions are baseless and CEC Gyanesh The list of promisleading. Female Kumar. P3 motees includes ACP protesters are hanVivek Bhagat, who dled by female staff has been accused by a woman and are treated with dignity.” journalist of sexual assault Police have also arrested a perwhile he was tasked to control son for allegedly creating and crowds. The 2018-batch DA- circulating a fake poster showNIPS officer has been promoted ing a police officer sexually asto the post of additional deputy saulting a woman. E x p ress N e ws S er v i c e @ New Delhi l J8.00 l PAGES 12 S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi Hearing a suo motu case on a recent rape incident in Delhi-NCR, the Supreme Court on Monday strongly told the Delhi Police to take strict action against such offenders and ensure that every woman in the National Capital Territory (NTC) feels safe at any hour. “You (Delhi Police) need to get into action. If you have to be a little more strict, a little more harsh, do not hesitate. You need to create a fright, a fear in the mind of a man who is prone to commit such offences. Unless you create a fright in the minds of the criminals, you will not be able to prevent such crimes,” observed a two-judge bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K ‘Ensure security of edu institutions’ L-G Taranjit Singh Sandhu directed intensified police patrolling, better lighting and CCTV coverage around educational institutions as he reviewed student safety and campus security with vice chancellors of govt universities. P4 Vinod Chandran. “Merely putting things on paper is not enough. You need to get into action,” it told the police. Expressing distress over the news reports, the SC appointed Senior Advocate Liz Mathew as amicus curiae to assist the court in the case. The SC asked the Delhi Police to intensify surveillance to arrest those involved in such offences and concentrate more on places like bus stops, metros, railway Rising ATF costs Air India, IndiGo and Akasa introduced fuel surcharge in March when ATF prices shot up due to the Iran war. They lowered it in July. With tension again peaking, ATF prices have seen a jump. above 2,000 km. For international flights, IndiGo will charge a fuel surcharge of `500 for the SAARC nations that are within 500 km. For SAARC region beyond 500 km, the charges are `1,000. For South East Asia, Middle East and GCC and North & East Asia, a fuel surcharge of `5,500 has been introduced. For Africa and Europe, it is `6,000 and `10,000 respectively . stations, schools, colleges— North Campus, South Campus, etc.—where women are more vulnerable. The bench said it would pass a short order later and fixed November 13 for further hearing of the matter. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that the government fully shared the SC’s concern and said he had met concerned authorities, including Delhi Police, the Government of the NCT of Delhi, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the Ministry of Women and Child Development, and others, and had formulated suggestions which they would file accordingly . On September 28, the SC took suo motu cognisance of the alleged gang-rape of a 17year-old in a park, after expressing its displeasure over the recent incidents of sexual violence cases in Delhi-NCR. On September 21, three men gang-raped a 17-year-old girl at Astha Kunj Park near Kalkaji Temple in South-East Delhi by posing as policemen. The court was told that at least 13 cases of sexual assault have been reported in city this month. The bench had earlier directed the SC registry to register a suo motu PIL in the matter and list it for hearing. Ministers Hardeep Puri, Verma HC orders CBI out of BJP’s UP Rajya Sabha list ED’s allegations probe into graft in Punjab CMO N am i ta B a j pa i @ Lucknow H ar p reet B a j w a @ Chandigarh The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation into allegations of corruption linked to Punjab Chief Minister’s Bhagwant Mann’s office. The allegations of graft in transfers, policy decisions and tenders were raised by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in three letters to the Punjab Director General of Police (DGP). Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said the state would challenge the order in the Supreme Court. Pronouncing the order, a division bench of Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor directed the CBI to register an FIR and submit a status report within two months. The court ordered the state government and police to cooperate with the agency, noting it was “not impressed by the manner in which I hope CBI conducts Punjab police has acted a fair, impartial and so far in the matter”. time-bound The HC was hearing investigation. a PIL filed by advocate Those who looted Nikhil Saraf seeking Punjab’s exchequer an independent central must be booked probe into the ED’s alPartap Singh Bajwa legations. The PIL alPunjab Leader of Oppn leged corruption by senior state officials, including Mann’s Officer on Special Duty Rajbir Singh Ghuman. The ED’s letters were based on material unearthed in an money laundering investigation involving Greater Mohali Area Development Authority land allotments in which one Nitin Gohal allegedly acted as an intermediary for Ghuman. The ED alleged that Gohal, in collusion with Ghuman and other associates, operated an organised bribery network out of the CMO, collecting crores of rupees in cash and real estate in exchange for influencing postings, leaking files and clearing commercial projects. The state had opposed the PIL, questioning maintainability and the credentials of the petitioner. Your IndiGo ticket just took a faster price flight A R S H A D K H A N @ New Delhi Using light, researchers can now switch individual neural circuits on or off in the brain. It all began when Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel discovered a protein, channelrhodopsin, in a single-celled alga. German researcher Karl Deisseroth then worked with the gene that controls that protein to create a light-controlled switch for nerve cells in mice’s brain | P9 Create fear in minds of goons, cops told war fuel IN a fresh blow to travellers, India’s largest airline IndiGo on Monday declared a fuel surcharge on domestic and international flights from Tuesday . It will go up to `10,000, depending on the route and sector. For domestic flights, IndiGo will charge `425 for routes less than 500 km, `600 for routes between 501-1,000 km, `900 for routes between 1,001–1,500 km, `1,150 for routes between 1,501– 2,000 km and `1,300 for routes Prof. Dr Georg Nagel Using light as switch to control brain Australian and New Zealand police said separately on Monday that their counterterror teams were investigating Omani co-pilot’s links to their countries THE Supreme Court on Monday said it had never approved any modification to Form 6 used by the Election Commission of India (ECI) during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of poll rolls, and said it would examine records to find out who altered the statutory form without following due process. A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued notice to the ECI and the Centre on a batch of pleas alleging that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar took key decisions unilaterally , without the concurrence of the other two Election Commissioners. It directed the ECI and the Law Ministry to file responses in a week and listed the matter for October 13. “Any modification to Form 6 has not been approved by us. Let’s be clear. When records are produced, we would like to see who modified it,” the CJI said. Later in the day, the ECI pushed back, saying a declaration was attached to Form 6 in the Bihar SIR order of June 24, 2025, which was upheld by the top court in its May 27 order. The court on Monday was hearing a PIL by advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi challenging unilateral decisions and software changes introduced by the CEC.The plea, filed through advocate C h a n d Qureshi, was taken Peter Hegemann IndiGo controls two-thirds of India’s domestic air traffic. “The continuous rise in fuel prices, with the latest monthon-month increase exceeding 14%, has taken ATF costs to levels that are amongst the highest in the last decade. Given that Aviation Turbine Fuel makes up a significant share of airline’s operating costs, this rise is expected to impact airlines’ cost structures and network economics, including those of IndiGo,” said IndiGo in a statement. Per litre jump for airlines After falling from `115 per litre in June to `110 in July, domestic ATF prices rose to `115 per litre in August and climbed to `137 from October 1. All outgoing MPs dropped Among the BJP Rajya Sabha members retiring from Uttar Pradesh are Hardeep Singh Puri, B L Verma, Arun Singh, Geeta Shakya, Neeraj Shekhar, Brijlal and Seema Dwivedi Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and B L Verma did not feature in the list of eight candidates announced by the BJP on Monday for the October 16 Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh. The list has a mix of uppercaste, Other Backward Classes (OBC), Dalit and women faces, with sources saying the party is aiming to strike a careful caste and regional balance. The eight candidates announced are: State minister Dharampal Singh, Radhakant Ojha, Prakash Pal, Vidyasagar Sonkar, Gopi Krishna Pandey, Priyanka Singh Rawat, Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan and Shruti Gangwar. Besides two women, the list has three candidates from the OBC community two from the , Scheduled Caste and three from the upper caste. The nominations offer clues to the BJP’s strategy in UP, where social engineering remains central to electoral success. By accommodating various caste groups and regions, the party appears keen to reinforce its broad social coalition. The ruling BJP announced its candidates just a day before the last date for filing nomination papers. The Samajwadi Party has fielded its secretary general Ram Gopal Yadav and senior Reliance Industries executive Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani for two seats.