Top five news stories to watch out for on December 18, 2019

The Supreme Court will hear on December 18 the pleas of the Congress and former Maharaja of Tripura Pradyot Kishor Deb Barman challenging constitutional validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has also challenged the Citizenship Amendment Act in the Supreme Court and his plea will be heard as well. The Apex Court will also hear the petition related to the Telangana police encounter against the four accused in the gang rape and murder of a veterinarian in Hyderabad. The four accused in the case were killed in earlier this month.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) council will hold its 38th meeting on December 18. On Monday, the Centre had released Rs 35,298 crore to the States in Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation. The decision came at a time when several States had urged the Centre to transfer the compensation payments, which have been pending for several months.

The second two-plus-two dialogue between India and the United States (US) will take place on December 18 in Washington. During the meeting, the two sides will take stock of the entire gamut of strategic ties between the two countries, the Ministry of External Affairs said. The Indian side will be represented by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

The next hearing in the case involving Chanda Kocchar, former CEO and MD of ICICI Bank, and Videocon will take place on December 18 at the Bombay High Court. Kochhar landed in troubled late March 2018 when the media had reported details about her role in Videocon Group getting ₹3,250 crore loan from ICICI Bank out of turn in 2012 which soon after invested 10 per cent of the loan in Nupower, a company owned by her husband Deepak. This comes months after she voluntarily left the second largest private sector lender

India will lay against West Indies in the second one day international (ODI) match in Vizag on December 18. West Indies had defeated India by eight wickets in the first match in Chennai, taking a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. The match will begin at 1.30 pm.