06052026-TT-01.qxd 5/5/2026 11:15 PM Page 1 c m y b 13 CHANDIGARH | GURUGRAM | JALANDHAR | BATHINDA | VOL. 146 NO. 124 | 12 PAGES | ~6.00 | REGD. NO. CHD/0006/2024-2026 ESTABLISHED IN 1881 HIMACHAL PRADESH SC NOTICE TO HOODA POST HC RELIEF IN LAND CASE HARYANA /thetribunechd YEAR AFTER TREATY SUSPENSION, CHENAB FLOWS INTO PAK J&K INDIA TOP RECIPIENT OF REMITTANCE WITH $137 BN: UN BUSINESS UNACCEPTABLE: PM MODI CONDEMNS ATTACKS ON FUJAIRAH BACK PAGE wednesday | 6 may 2026 /thetribunechd www.tribuneindia.com ‘Murder of Constitution’: CM Mann urges Didi refuses to resign as CM, Prez to revoke membership of 6 RS MPs claims EC hijacked mandate Rinku Behera Rahul Gahlawat Tribune News Service New Delhi, April 5 Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday met President Droupadi Murmu and urged her to cancel the Rajya Sabha membership of six MPs from the state, who were elected on the AAP ticket and shifted to the BJP saying , their act was a “mockery” and “murder” of the Constitution. Mann told the President that the manner in which the MPs broke away and aligned with another party struck at the core of anti-defection safeguards and turned the mandate of voters into a negotiable instrument. Before Mann, the defected MPs also met the President and alleged misuse of Punjab Government machinery to target them after they moved to the BJP . After meeting the President at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Mann said the MPs could not simply declare themselves a separate group and proceed to merge with another party. He said there was no provision in law that permitted such a route, and described the move as a direct violation AAP MLAs in tow, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann addresses the media after meeting President Droupadi Murmu in New Delhi. MUKESH AGGARWAL of constitutional principles governing defections. “The mandate belongs to the people and cannot be altered midway through internal manoeuvres,” said Mann, while speaking to reporters. He maintained that if the MPs had serious differences with AAP the proper course was to , resign and return to the electorate. Retaining their seats while changing political allegiance, he said, undermined both Parliament and the voters who elected them. Mann also raised the absence of a recall mechanism, suggesting that Parliament needed to consider amendments to ensure accountability in such cases. The controversy follows a major setback for AAP on April 24, when seven of its 10 Rajya Sabha MPs — Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Sandeep continued on page 8 New Delhi, May 5 A day after suffering a major setback in the West Bengal Assembly elections, outgoing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee struck a defiant tone on Tuesday, asserting that she “will not resign”, citing “large-scale irregularities” in the poll process. “I want to say that we didn’t lose the elections. It was not a people’s mandate, but a conspiracy. Officially, through the Election Commission, they defeated us, but morally we won the elections,” Mamata said while addressing a press conference in Kolkata. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief accused the EC of bias, alleging that the party’s real contest was not against the BJP but against the poll body. “We did not fight the BJP; we fought the EC, which worked for the saffron party,” she claimed. Mamata alleged that nearly 100 seats were “forcibly taken away”, raising continued on page 8 Gaurav Kanthwal Tribune News Service Forensic experts and the police inspect the two-wheeler in which the blast occurred outside the BSF headquarters in Jalandhar. MALKIAT SINGH Scooter blast near BSF HQ in Jalandhar sparks panic Mohali, May 5 Around 200 passengers onboard a Hyderabad-Chandigarh IndiGo flight had to be evacuated in an emergency after smoke filled the cabin due to a minor blast in a power bank kept in a pouch in the seat pocket of a passenger. Two fire extinguishers were used by the crew to control the fire even as smoke spread through the cabin, leading to panic and a stampede-like situation. All exits were opened around 3:30 pm. The aircraft had just landed at Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport, Chandigarh, and was heading to Bay 1. Panicked passengers evacuated through the slides, with an Air Force fire tender stationed nearby. There were around 200 passengers and six crew members on board, all of whom were evacuated using the slides. Sources said Jalandhar, May 5 A blast took place in a twowheeler parked at the gate of the Punjab Frontier Headquarters of the Border Security Force (BSF) here this evening, causing panic in the area. The incident occurred around 8 pm when Gurpreet (22), a delivery boy working with Flipkart, had come to deliver parcels to BSF personnel. While he was returning to his scooter after delivering one parcel and taking out another, an explosion occurred in the scooter, ripping it apart and also damaging some electrical equipment and poles in the vicinity. Window panes of a nearby shop were also shattered due to the impact. Gurpreet was hurt in the incident and the police continued on page 8 4 UP cops among 5 killed in Nuh mishap Collegium clears 10 for elevation to Pb & Hry HC GURUGRAM: Five persons, including four police personnel of the Uttar Pradesh Police, were killed after the SUV they were travelling in lost control and crashed on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway in Haryana’s Nuh district. INSIDE Saurabh Malik Tribune News Service Cabinet expansion in Bihar tomorrow PATNA: Bihar BJP chief Sanjay Saraogi said the Cabinet expansion of Samrat Choudhary-led government in the state would take place on Thursday in the presence of senior national leaders of the party, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. — PTI Tribune News Service Chandigarh, May 5 The Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India, Justice Surya Kant, has approved the elevation of 10 advocates as judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, including Haryana Advocate-General Pravindra Singh Chauhan. The decision, taken in the Collegium’s meeting on May 4, comes against the backdrop of a glaring gap between the High Court’s sanctioned strength of 85 judges and its current working strength of 58 — an institutional shortfall that has long strained judicial functioning in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. The Collegium cleared the 4.18L cases pending, aim to help cut shortage of judges names of Monica Chhibber Sharma, Harmeet Singh Deol, Puja Chopra, Sunish Bindlish, Navdeep Singh, Divya Sharma and Ravinder Malik for elevation. In a separate but concurrent resolution, it also approved the elevation of Chauhan, Rajesh Gaur and Minderjeet Yadav. The move assumes significance in view of a persistent backlog. As many as 4,18,541 cases are currently pending, including 3,34,227 matters that have been awaiting adjudication for over a year. As of now, the rate of disposal has outpaced fresh institution, with 18,611 cases Passengers being evacuated from a plane at the Chandigarh airport. a passenger seated in 39C reported the fire near a passenger in seat 39A to the crew. The crew responded with two fire extinguishers, but smoke decided against 17,491 filed. The push to reduce pendency, coupled with the appointment of new judges, is expected to provide a crucial boost to the court. The development also reflects a quiet but consistent institutional push under CJI Surya Kant, whose association with the Punjab and Haryana High Court as his parent court lends a certain immediacy to the exercise. While the Collegium’s work spans the entire country, the present recommendations indicate a calibrated effort to address long-standing vacancies in a court that continues to grapple with a heavy docket. The appointments, once cleared by the President, are expected to partially bridge the gap in judicial strength. c m y b spread throughout the cabin even as the aircraft reached Bay 1. Officials said the crew opened the emergency exits continued on page 8 Cabinet nod to raise strength ofjudges in SC from 34 to 38 Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, May 5 The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal to increase the number of judges in the Supreme Court from 34 judges to 38 (including the Chief Justice of India). In a Cabinet meeting, the government decided to introduce ‘The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill, 2026’ in Parliament to amend ‘The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1956’ for increasing the number of Judges of the Supreme Court continued on page 8 The BJP shifted its focus towards government formation, appointing Home Minister Amit Shah as its central observer for the election of West Bengal CM. Shah will be assisted by Odisha CM Mohan Charan Majhi as co-observer, with the CM's oath-taking ceremony scheduled for May 9. INSIDE <
The Tribune, now published from Chandigarh, started publication on February 2, 1881, in Lahore (now in Pakistan). It was started by Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia, a public-spirited philanthropist, and is run by a trust comprising four eminent persons as trustees.
The Tribune, the largest selling daily in North India, publishes news and views without any bias or prejudice of any kind. Restraint and moderation, rather than agitational language and partisanship, are the hallmarks of the paper. It is an independent newspaper in the real sense of the term.
The English edition apart, the 133-year-old Tribune has two sister publications, Punjabi Tribune (in Punjabi) and Dainik Tribune (in Hindi).
