Morning digest: SIR notices to Jaishankar, Election Commissioner Sandhu in Delhi; Iran shuts French language centre, and more

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Randeep Singh Surjewala said that India is a sovereign republic with the right to buy energy from any nation that meets India’s national interests and at a price its people can afford. File | Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani, Election Commissioner Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia were among several prominent names on Delhi’s draft electoral roll to be identified for notices either for “logical discrepancies” flagged by the Election Commission’s (EC’s) software or under the “no mapping” category.

Iranian authorities on Sunday (September 20, 2026) announced the closure of a French language centre associated with the embassy, accusing it of having undertaken “illegal activities”, drawing a sharp response from Paris.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday (September 20, 2026) that she’ll soon introduce a measure to her government to cap the number of foreign students in classrooms and ban the wearing of burkas and niqabs in schools.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday (September 20, 2026) the triumphal arch ​he plans to build near Arlington National Cemetery in Washington would double as a “military complex” ⁠housing drones and snipers , as well as storing large quantities of ammunition.

As Israel gears up for its parliamentary elections on October 27, a one-year-old party has emerged as a significant contender. The Yashar (Hebrew for ‘straight’) party has garnered widespread support , according to opinion polls reported by Israeli media outlets, some of which place the party ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.

A Bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe observed that litigants’ money should be saved from ad-hoc management while calling for nationwide legislative reform to standardise how courts and tribunals handle money deposited during pending litigation.

The Mumbai Police late on Saturday (September 19, 2026) transferred the probe into the death of a second-year student at IIT-Bombay to the Crime Branch , saying an officer of the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police will lead the investigation.

Former Union Minister and Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari said taking India to the next level of development would require a multi-partisan approach , without which development would remain not just a challenge but a mirage.

A political row erupted in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday (September 20, 2026), as BJP leaders slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for featuring the mimicry of Prime Minister Narendra Modi by stand-up comedian Pulkit Mani at a student interaction event in Indore.

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday (September 20, 2026) alleged that over 151 statues of B.R. Ambedkar had been vandalised across 72 districts of Uttar Pradesh under the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) nine-and-a-half-year rule in the State. Releasing a ‘Samajwadi audit report’, Mr.