Five of family killed in fire at residential building in Himachal Pradesh
Shimla, July 23 : At least five persons, including three women, of a wedding party were charred to death when a house caught fire near Mandi town in Himachal Pradesh early on Monday, police said.
The incident took place at Ner Chowk around 5 a.m. when the occupants of the house were asleep. The deceased were identified as Narender Soni and Veena Soni, Sudesh, Mona,40, and her eight-year-old son Sai Sohel.
Prima facie the cause of fire is believed to be a short-circuit, Superintendent of Police Gurdev Chand Sharma said. The deaths were reportedly due to suffocation.
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Madras HC strikes down TN order limiting maternity leave for third child
Chennai: The Madras High Court has set aside a Tamil Nadu government order restricting maternity leave for a third pregnancy to 12 weeks, holding the move to be contrary to established legal principles.
A division bench comprising Justices R Suresh Kumar and N Senthil Kumar ruled that there was no justification to treat third pregnancies differently from the first two, observing that the physical and medical requirements of childbirth remain the same irrespective of the number of pregnancies, as reported by The News Minute.
According to a report published by Live Law, the court was hearing a petition filed by Shayee Nisha, a staff member of the district judiciary in Villupuram, whose request for maternity leave from February 2026 to February 2027 had been curtailed to three months by authorities citing the March 13, 2026 government order.
Quashing the decision of the Principal District Judge and related directions asking her to resume duty, the bench directed that she be granted maternity leave on par with that provided for earlier pregnancies, allowing up to 365 days.
The court noted that both the Supreme Court of India and earlier rulings of the High Court had consistently held that maternity benefits cannot be denied for a third child. Holding the restriction to be unsustainable, the court directed authorities to process maternity leave applications without discrimination based on the number of pregnancies.
It also pointed out that a similar issue had been addressed by a division bench earlier this year, which had disapproved denial of maternity leave in such cases and directed that its ruling be circulated among judicial officers. Despite this, the state issued the impugned order, the bench observed.
