Maharashtra News LIVE Updates: 'Employees in all govt offices to mandatorily greet with Vande Mataram'

Settlements to the tune of Rs 169.76 crore were made during the National Lok Adalat held in Maharashtra's Thane district, an official said on Sunday. As many as 12,930 cases were settled by 98 benches in the courts of Thane and Palghar on Saturday, said Ishwar K Suryavanshi, secretary of the District Legal Aid Services Authority (DLASA).

Convicting and sentencing a 43-year-old BMC officer to 3-month imprisonment for addressing a 40-year-old woman corporator as “gudiya” (doll) in several texts sent late at night in 2016 along with pictures of “scantily clad” models from newspapers, a magistrate’s court held that even though those were viral photos, it did not give him the right to send them to her. The court further said the concept of obscene changes from person to person. “(In) the photographs sent to the informant’s (woman) number, the model is in less clothes. In India, in many families, traditional clothing is practiced, therefore, for such type of families less clothing is obscene and, moreover, the photographs were sent when the informant does not know the accused.

As many as 219 new cases of Covid-19 have been detected in Maharashtra's Thane district, taking the tally of infections to 7,36,562, a health official said on Sunday. With the addition of the latest numbers on Saturday, the district currently has 1,376 active Covid-19 cases, he said. No death was reported on Saturday and the fatality toll in the district stood at 11,937. The recovery count in Thane has gone up to 7,23,771, he added.

The state cabinet recently authorized chief minister Eknath Shinde to recommend to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari the names of 12 experts for nomination on the state legislative council. According to a senior official, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis submitted in Tuesday’s cabinet meeting that Shinde is authorized to make recommendations to the governor on the appointments of experts to the council. Under Article 171 of the constitution, the governor has powers to appoint experts from the fields of literature, science, cooperation and sports on the legislative council.