SC Critiques Its Own Denial of Bail to Umar Khalid as ‘Judicial Indiscipline’; Rupee Falls Seventh Straight Time to Another Low; Modi Walks Away Without Answering Questions by Norwegian Media
Trump’s Visit to Beijing Marks Another Reset in US-China relations, ED Arrests AAP Leader Deepak Singla, Indian National Killed in Ukrainian Drone Attack in Moscow
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Snapshot of the day
May 16, 2026
Sidharth Bhatia
When Justices Aravind Kumar and N.V. Anjaria denied bail to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the Delhi riots ‘conspiracy’ case even though they had spent over five years in pre-trial jail, they were violating “judicial discipline” because the K.A. Najeeb decision of 2021 recognised prolonged delays in trial as grounds for bail even in UAPA cases. This was stated by two of the judges’ colleagues in the Supreme Court, Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan, on Monday, while passing a verdict in a separate case. “Judicial discipline mandates that such a binding precedent must either be followed or, in case of doubt, be referred to a larger bench,” they said. Keeping detenus in jail for a long time just because a case is prima facie true would give their incarceration a ‘post-trial punitive character’ and bail becomes virtually impossible, they noted. Khalid and Imam, the only ones who remain jailed in the widely condemned case, had been told to approach the court next January for bail.
The Indian Rupee hit a fresh record low of 96.32 against the US dollar today, falling nearly 7% this year and emerging as one of Asia’s weakest major currencies. The rupee has now declined for the seventh straight trading session amid rising global bond yields, high crude oil prices, and growing external pressures. [See Drawn and quartered & Watch Out]
What is even more concerning is that the rupee is also weakening against regional currencies like the Thai Baht, Sri Lankan Rupee, Pakistani Rupee, and Bangladeshi Taka – despite many of these economies facing their own economic challenges.
As economist Kaushik Basu observes, “Net FDI to India [has been] near 0 in 22 months,” underscoring the broader stagnation in foreign investment inflows.
India is also increasingly being seen as one of the global laggards in shifting investment trends. As Bloomberg notes, “India stands out as one of the biggest losers as the artificial intelligence trade reshapes global investment flows.” It further warns that without the AI-led market rallies benefiting Taiwan and South Korea, India risks “falling further behind rather than regaining lost ground.”
In a separate development, Union petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Puri recently assured his audience at the CII’s annual business summit that India has 45 days’ worth of ‘rolling’ LPG stock. But when M. Kalyanaraman and Debayan Tewari crunched the numbers,
