# Supreme Court

• Rahul Gandhi has not challenged his conviction and two year sentence in a criminal defamation case as well as the resultant qualification as member of parliament.
• Meanwhile, a social activist from Kerala moved the Supreme Court, seeking to restrict disqualification of MPs and MLAs to conviction in serious and heinous offences.
• A decade ago, Supreme Court had declared section 8(4) of the representation of the people act as unconstitutional, elected representatives lost the statutory cushion of 90 days, within which he/she could file an appeal against the conviction and sentence and continue as the member of house concerned till the appellate Court made a decision.
• The Lily Thomas ruling of 2013 resulted in automatic and immediate disqualification of MP’s and MLA’s from the date of conviction, if sentenced to two years or more.

# Aravali green wall

• Inspired by Africa’s East West ‘Green Green wall’ envisioned to contain the Sahara Desert, India on Saturday launched its own afforestation project that will create a roughly 1400 KM long and 5KM wide green belt buffer around the aravali mountain range.
• This green wall will cover parts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi.
• The project will involve planting native species of trees and shrubs on Scrubland, Wasteland and degraged forest land along with rejuvenating Surface water bodies.
• Besides preventing Eastward expansion of the thar desert, the green wall is expected to act as a barrier for the dust coming from the West to Delhi NCR.

# China

• China on Friday denied pressuring companies to collect information abroad on behalf of the government.
• American lawmakers had earlier alleged that Tik tok is used for snooping by Chinese companies on behalf of Chinese government.

# Russia

• India and Russia will have an opportunity to review bilateral ties and discuss regional and global issues as NSA Ajit Doval is likely to host his Russian counterpart on March 29.
• This will be the first high level contact between two countries after Russian President Vladimir Putin met Chinese President xi jinping.