Australia batter Usman Khawaja granted visa to travel to India; to fly out on Thursday
Melbourne, Feb 1: Australia opener Usman Khawaja was granted the visa late on Wednesday to travel to India for the Test series after the Pakistan-born cricketer was forced to miss the morning flight due to delay in the issuance of travel documents.
The passport and visa were handed over to a Cricket Australia (CA) representative late on Wednesday night in Melbourne, said a report in 'Sydney Morning Herald'.
The Australian Test squad and support staff led by Pat Cummins had left for the team's training base in Bengaluru on two separate flights on Tuesday and Wednesday, but Khawaja couldn't board either as his passport and visa had not been delivered by the Indian high commission.
Khawaja will now board the flight from Melbourne to Bengaluru on Thursday and could attend the team's training session on Friday, said the report.
The cricketer, after coming to know his visa documents had not been processed, had taken to social media on Wednesday afternoon to express his frustration.
"Me waiting for my Indian Visa like... #stranded #dontleaveme #standard #anytimenow," Khawaja wrote on Instagram.
The report added that the process for the issuance of visa had been initiated by CA in early January, and that Khawaja was the only member in the touring party whose application was not processed in time.
The report quoted a spokesperson of the Indian High Commission as saying that the matter was being investigated.
The Pakistan-born batter has played 56 Tests, 40 ODIs and nine T20Is for Australia. The 36-year-old also featured in the Indian Premier League back in 2016.
He was named Australia's Test Player of the Year on Monday, an award named after the legendary Shane Warne.
Australia will have a four-day training camp on the outskirts of Bengaluru before moving to Nagpur for the first Test beginning February 9. The other venues are Delhi, Dharamsala and Ahmedabad.
Both teams are in the running to reach the World Test Championship final.
Australia have opted out of a tour game in India ahead of the crucial series expecting the surfaces in practice games to be totally different from what they would face in the four Tests.
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May initiate contempt action if states, UTs non compliant against misleading ads: SC
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Wednesday warned states and union territories of contempt action if they failed to act against misleading advertisements.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan perused a note submitted by senior advocate Shadan Farasat, who is assisting the apex court as an amicus curiae in the matter, and observed a number of states were non-compliant as indicated in the note.
"We make it clear that if we find non-compliance by any of the states and union territories, we may have to initiate proceedings under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, against the states concerned," the bench said.
The issue pertaining to misleading advertisements had cropped up before the top court while hearing a plea filed by the Indian Medical Association in 2022 alleging a smear campaign by Patanjali Ayurved Ltd against the Covid vaccination drive and modern systems of medicine.
The top court had highlighted the aspect of misleading advertisements being published or displayed in media contrary to the provisions of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 and the rules, the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.
During the hearing on Wednesday, the amicus said as per the affidavits filed by the states and union territories so far, virtually no prosecution under the 1954 Act was taking place.
While Section 3 of the Act deals with prohibition of advertisement of certain drugs for treatment of certain diseases and disorders, Section 4 relates to prohibition of misleading advertisements of drugs.
The bench referred to affidavits filed by some of the states and questioned why they hadn't acted on the basis of complaints received.
Some states, it noted, found it difficult to identify the violaters.
"We will take contempt action now," the bench said, "and we will threadbare examine the compliance made by each states."
The bench said it would consider the compliance made by Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir on February 10.
And if these states wanted to file further affidavits reporting compliance, they were free to do so by February 3, it added.
The bench said compliance by states including Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab would be considered on February 24.
It said compliance regarding other states and union territories would be considered on March 17.
While hearing the matter in July last year, the apex court said the Ministry of Ayush should set up a dashboard to make available to the consumers the details about the complaints filed on misleading advertisements and the progress made on them.
In April last year, the top court asked the Centre and state licensing authorities to "activate" themselves to deal with misleading advertisements.
