Outlay for general education goes up in Kerala Budget

Former CPI State deputy secretary C. Mahendran on Thursday (June 18, 2026) joined the TVK, led by Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay.“I joined the party because it is committed to eradicating corruption,” he said.Mr. Mahendran, once a prominent face of the CPI and editor of Thamarai, the party’s literary magazine, was not holding any position in the party, and was only an honorary member after facing allegations of irregularities.“He was removed from all party positions at the State council meeting held in Salem in 2023,” said R. Mutharasan, former State secretary of the CPI.According to Mr. Mutharasan, the allegations against Mr. Mahendran related to his alleged association with a group that sought to take control of the New Century Book House (NCBH), a publishing house run by the party.“There was an attempt to take over the institution, but we managed to save the book house in time. There was also a proposal to remove him from the primary membership of the party. However, we allowed him to continue as an honorary member,” Mr. Mutharasan said.Questioning Mr. Mahendran’s move, he said, “If a person is unable to work within the Communist Party [of India], a movement dedicated to the welfare of the poor, how will he be able to work for the TVK?”Mr. Mahendran’s entry into the TVK comes at a time when the ruling party is seeking to broaden its support base by attracting leaders from across the political spectrum.CPI State secretary M. Veerapandian said the party respected the freedom of its members, and did not prevent anyone from making their own political choices.“They are free to continue their journey with the party. If they wish to leave, they are equally free to do so,” he said.Mr. Veerapandian also pointed out that every person joining the CPI is required to accept a fundamental principle of the organisation.“When a person becomes a member of the CPI, he or she undertakes that the party’s interests will prevail over individual interests, and that the nation’s interests are more important than the party’s interests,” he said. Published - June 18, 2026 07:58 pm IST

The procedures will be followed scrupulously and an order will be passed by the Speaker by following the principles of natural justice and in accordance with law, the A-G said. The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam-led government is committed to honouring constitutional values and therefore, the disqualification proceedings initiated against four former All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) shall be taken to their logical end, Advocate General Vijay Narayan told the Madras High Court on Monday.Appearing before Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan, the A-G said, the AIADMK leaders had initially given a representation to the Legislative Assembly Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar for initiating disqualification proceedings against 25 of their MLAs who voted in favour of the TVK led government on the floor of the House on May 13, 2026 in defiance of their party whip.Thereafter, the AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami wrote to the Speaker condoning the act of 21 ouf of 25 MLAs and therefore, the Speaker dropped the disqualification proceedings against them. In the meantime, the rest of the four MLAs S. Jayakumar, P. Sathyabama, Maragatham Kumaravel and Esaki Subaya had submitted their resignations to the Speaker and joined the TVK.The Speaker accepted their resignations because of the law laid down by a three judge Bench comprising former Chief Justices of India N.V. Ramana, Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Krishna Murari of the Supreme Court in Shrimanth Balasaheb Patil versus Honourable Speaker of Karnataka in 2019. In that verdict, the top court had held that a Speaker was bound to accept a resignation if it was genuine and voluntary.“In the present case, all four MLAs appeared before the honourable Speaker and submitted their resignations. There was no doubt their resignations were not genuine. It was not a case of any forged signatures having been attested on the resignation letters or anything like that. Hence, their resignations were accepted,” the A-G told the Division Bench.He went on to state the Speaker had nevertheless issued notices to all the four former MLAs (who later joined the ruling TVK) and sought their explanation with respect to the disqualification proceedings since the Supreme Court had also ruled in the 2019 verdict that the disqualification proceedings could continue dehors the submission of the resignation letters by the MLAs concerned.“Therefore, the procedures will be followed scrupulously and an order will be passed by the Speaker by following the principles of natural justice and in accordance with law,” Mr. Narayan assured the court. The submissions were made during the hearing of a public interest litigation petition filed by Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi urging the court to quash a gazette notification issued with respect to the acceptance of the resignations.The judges adjourned the hearing on the case to Wednesday (June 17, 2026) after advocate S.R. Rajagopal, representing AIADMK whip Agri S.S. Krishnamurthy, said his client too had filed a writ petition against the acceptance of the resignations and sought an interim direction to the Election Commission of India to not conduct byelections to the four constituencies Perundurai, Madurantakam, Dharapuram and Ambasamudram vacated by the four former MLAs.Since the writ petition was yet to be numbered, the counsel requested the court to take up both the cases together on Wednesday. In the meantime, advocate B. Ramkumar Adityan of Tiruchendur too filed a writ petition in the High Court seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into circumstances that led to the resignation of the four MLAs and their joining the TVK within a few minutes thereafter. Published - June 15, 2026 10:26 pm IST

Lieutenant General Vijay Oberoi | He was 84.He was commissioned into the Maratha Light Infantry Regimental Centre (MLIRC) in June 1961.In 1965, while serving with the Marathas in J&K, he was grievously wounded and lost his right leg. But he continued to serve the nation for over 40 years. He served as Colonel of the Maratha Light Infantry Regiment, Director-General Military Operations, Army Commander of Army Training Command (ARTRAC) and Army Commander Western Command.He retired as Vice-Chief of Army Staff on September 30, 2001. He was a graduate of the U.S. Army War College and Military Adviser to Malaysia. He was known for his dedication to national security and soldier welfare.He was the founder-president of War Wounded Foundation and Founder-Director of Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS).He fought for dignity and financial independence of war-disabled soldiers. At 72, he ran the Mumbai Marathon on his prosthetic leg to prove that spirit never retires, said a release. Published - June 15, 2026 06:54 pm IST