The Supreme Court is to hear on Thursday the pleas challenging the use of EVMs in elections without equipping the machines with a voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT). A bench headed by Chief Justice J. S. Khehar refused to give a separate hearing to a plea filed by former Samajwadi Party lawmaker Ataur Rehman who sought elections with EVMs equipped with VVPAT.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has been summoned by the ED for questioning in its money laundering probe. The Enforcement Directorate action comes close on the heels of the CBI filing a charge sheet against him and his wife and others for allegedly amassing assets worth around Rs 10 crore disproportionate to their known sources of income.

India and France are to sign an agreement for technical collaboration in the civil aviation space on April 13. The agreement will be signed in the presence of visiting French Minister of State for Transport, Marine Affairs and Fisheries Alain Vidalies and Civil Aviation Minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju. The agreement is for promoting cooperation for the exchange of expertise and technical trainings between Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the French Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGAC). Earlier, the Cabinet cleared the pact between the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and France's DGAC for technical collaboration in the civil aviation space.

Fresh polls will be held in 38 polling stations of the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency on Thursday, which saw unprecedented poll-day violence on Sunday. The 38 polling stations are spread across five Assembly segments of the parliamentary constituency. The EC has also decided to defer the bypolls for Anantnag-Pulwama Lok Sabha seat to May 25. While 16 polling stations for Srinagar are located in Chadoora, eight are in Budgam, five in Beerwah, one in Khan Sahib and eight in Chararisharief. The polling stations are based in 30 locations or buildings across Srinagar.

Hearing in the two money laundering cases against AIADMK deputy general secretary TTV Dhinakaran will resume on Thursday with Dhinakaran’s side being give the chance to offer their replies. In the previous sitting the Enforcement Directorate (ED) opened its arguments for framing of charges against him. When the cases came up for hearing before the economic offences court-II presided over by additional chief metropolitan magistrate S Malarmathi, the ED's senior prosecutor M Dhandpani opened his arguments as required under Section 244 of CrPC. With this, the ED's pleadings in the case is over, as all documents have already been marked, and all witnesses already examined.