SC rejects plea to interview kids

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition filed by two private schools’ management, challenging a ban imposed by Delhi High Court on interviews of nursery children and their parents at the time of admission.

The apex court, however, granted liberty to petitioner Sriram and Vasant Valley schools to approach the high court afresh for raising their objections on the Ganguly committee recommendations.

The high court-appointed panel had come out with a slew of suggestions to dispense with the pernicious practice of interviewing children and their parents by the school authorities.

4 satellites set for PSLV ride

Sriharikota (PTI): India’s space research is set to achieve a breakthrough on January 10 with the launch of four payloads on a single rocket for the first time.

The Isro’s PSLV-C7 rocket will carry the payloads, which include the 680-kg mapping satellite, Cartosat-2, the 550-kg Space Capsule Recovery Experiment-1, Indonesia’s 56-kg Lapan-Tubsat satellite and the 6-kg Argentinian satellite, Pehuensat-1.

The recovery capsule is significant as it will pave the way for Isro’s future reusable launch-vehicle project.

The space capsule recovery experiment will provide experience in key fields like navigation, guidance and control during the re-entry phase, development of reusable thermal protection system and basic technology for reusable launch vehicles, Satish Dhawan Space Centre director M. Annamali said.

Boy killed

Ahmedabad (PTI): A 10-year-old boy has been found dead after being kidnapped on Thursday in Gujarat’s Navasari town.

Nayan Kachrolia was picked up from his school for ransom, police said. His father is engaged in diamond trade. A search is on for the kidnappers.

Kavita probe

Lucknow (PTI): Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has announced a CBI probe into the disappearance and suspected murder of Meerut university lecturer Kavita Chaudhary. She is believed to have been killed over the share of spoils in a sex-and-blackmail racket targeting VIPs.

Live shells in net

Madurai (PTI): Fifty live rocket shells have been found in fishermen’s nets from the Palk Straits off the Tamil Nadu coast in the past 15 days. The Israeli- and German-made shells were believed to have been left by Tamil Tiger rebels.

Carcasses of 25 peacocks suspected to have been killed by gypsies have been found in a village in Ajmer. Two persons of the nomadic Bawaria tribe have been arrested.