Top news of the day: Amit Shah calls meeting of senior Ministers to discuss future action on Indus treaty; Can’t stay law made by Parliament when validity presumed, Centre tells Supreme Court over Waqf row and more

Amit Shah calls meeting of senior Ministers to discuss future action on Indus treaty; Can’t stay law made by Parliament when validity presumed, Centre tells Supreme Court over Waqf row and more in The Hindu’s top news of the day on April 25, 2025

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will hold a key meeting on Friday to discuss the future course of action on the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 with Pakistan, which has been kept ‘in abeyance’, sources said. Union Jal Shakti Minister C.R. Paatil and senior officials of several ministries will take part in the meeting, sources said. The meeting is expected to discuss the future course of action and how to implement the decision of keeping the treaty in abeyance, they said. India has already informed Pakistan of its decision to keep the Indus Waters Treaty ‘in abeyance’ with immediate effect, saying Pakistan has breached its conditions.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday called up the Chief Ministers of all the states and asked them to ensure that no Pakistani citizens stay in India beyond the deadline set for leaving the country, sources said. India on Thursday (April 24) announced revoking all visas issued to Pakistani nationals from April 27 and advised Indian nationals residing in Pakistan to return home at the earliest, as tensions between the two countries escalated over the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, mostly tourists, on Tuesday.

The Centre on Friday sought the Supreme Court to dismiss the pleas challenging validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, and said there cannot be a “blanket stay” on the law as there was a “presumption of its constitutionality”. In a 1,332-page preliminary counter affidavit, the government defended the contentious law saying that “shockingly” after 2013, there were an addition of over 20 lakh hectare (precisely 20,92,072.536) in waqf land. “Right before even Mughal era, pre-independence era and post-independence era, the total of waqfs created was 18,29,163.896 acres of land in India,” the affidavit said. It claimed “reported misuse” of earlier provisions to encroach upon private and government properties.

The Supreme Court decided to stay a summons issued to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in his appeal against the Allahabad High Court decision declining to quash a summons against him in the V.D. Savarkar defamation case. He was summoned by a Magistrate on the basis of a complaint that he made derogatory remarks against the Hindutva ideologue during his Bharat Jodo Yatra in Maharashtra. A Bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Manmohan, however, gave a stern warning to Mr. Gandhi, represented by senior advocate A.M. Singhvi and advocate Prasanna S., not to indulge in making such “statements against our freedom fighters who gave us our freedom”.

A Delhi court on Friday refused to issue notice to Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others in the National Herald money laundering case for now. Special judge Vishal Gogne was acting on a plea of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which claimed cognisance of the complaint (ED’s equivalent to a chargesheet) cannot be taken without hearing the accused according to the new provisions of law.

Vice-Chancellors from all Tamil Nadu State universities skipped the Vice-Chancellors’ meeting being chaired by Governor R.N. Ravi at Udhagamandalam on Friday. The inauguration event at Raj Bhavan in Udhagamandalam in the Nilgiris was attended by Vice-President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar. Speaking at the conference, Governor Ravi said the Vice-Chancellors from State universities were warned by the State government not to attend the conference.

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (UG) paper leak prime accused Sanjeev Mukhiya was arrested by Economic Offences Unit team, Patna, the officials said on Friday. The EOU team arrested Mukhiya on Thursday (April 24) night, said Naiyar Hussain Khan, Additional Director General, Bihar Economic Offences Unit. On April 9, Bihar Police declared a reward of ₹3 lakh for information leading to the arrest of Sanjeev Mukhia, a key accused in the NEET-UG paper leak case. Earlier in October last year, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed the chargesheet in the NEET paper theft case in Patna, before the Special Judge Court for CBI, Patna.