Meanwhile...

The Law, The Courts:

• The Right to Information Act takes effect
• Dual citizenship is announced for all Indians who left the country after January 26, 1950
• Three per cent of seats in the IAS are reserved for people with disabilities
• The SC rules that a forward caste candidate cannot contest from a reserved constituency on the basis of marriage
• The SC says imprisonment for life means the whole of the remaining period of the convict's life, and not 14 years or 20 years
• The Supreme Court rules that children can inherit only their father's caste and not mother's
• The Delhi High Court clarifies that it has not reduced the legal age for marriage of girls from 18 to 15 years
• New criminal code says no arrest of women between sunset and sunrise
• The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Bill, 2005 passed giving Hindu women equal inheritance rights
• India announces a hijackpolicy: hijackers will not be negotiated with, and planes can be shot down
• India becomes the first country to ban on-screen smoking
• Kerala High Court holds that being a priest or nun in itself cannot be a disqualification for enrolment as advocates
• The SC says the national anthem is an immortal classic not subject to change.
• Constitutional Amendment Bill passed by Parliament for reservation for SCs and STs in unaided private educational institutions

The Accused, The Acquitted

• Abu Salem is finally brought to India
• Both the accused walk free in the Kanishka bombing trial
• Actor Vijay Raaz and fashion guru Prasad Bidapa are detained in Dubai on charges of possessing drugs
• Michael Jackson is cleared of all 10 child abuse charges

• Parliament attack accused Mohammed Afzal sentenced to death. S.A.R. Geelani and Afsan Guru are acquitted.
  
  

• Ashfaq Ahmed, a Pakistani, is awarded death sentence by a Delhi court in the 2000 Red Fort attack case.
  
  

• Aftab Ansari and six others are sentenced to death in the attack on the American Centre in Calcutta
  
  

• Mumbai bargirl Tarannum becomes a ‘player’ in the match-fixing drama after raids at her home reveal huge assets
  
  

• Sansar Chand, key suspect in the tiger poaching scandal in the Sariska game reserve, is arrested in West Delhi
  
  

• Filmfare Awards drops Manikchand as sponsor after the gutka king is accused of links with the underworld
  
  

• Anjali Gupta becomes the first woman pilot to be 'cashiered'

The Movers and the Shakers:

• Vijay Mallya becomes the world's second biggest liquor baron
• Sunl Mittal sews up a $1.5 million deal with Vodaphone
• Anil and Mukesh Ambani split up a $12 bilion empire after much squabbling
• Subroto Roy of Sahara goes on air to deny that he is seriously indisposed

In international news:

• Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf becomes the first African woman to head a State
• Japan's Junichiro Koizumi and New Zealand's Helen Clark win fresh terms.

In Science and Tech:

• Chennai-based cancer specialist V. Shanta bags the Magsaysay Award
• The American space shuttle Discovery roars into space once again
• Scientists create the world's first cloned dog - Snuppy was created by scientists in Seoul, South Korea from skin cells taken from the ear of a three-year-old Afghan hound called Tai.
• Cellphones turn 10, as does Amazon
• AIIMS pioneers stem cell injections
• A-380, the world's largest passenger aeroplane, is airborne
• Arjun Banerjee becomes the first baby to be born via in-vitro fertilisation to a single father and a surrogate mother

Indian kids spelt success abroad:

Clockwise from left top: Anurag Kashyap, Aliya Deri, Samir Sudhir Patel and Rajiv Tarigopula—all children of Indian origin—claim the top four slots at the 78th Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee

And above all: the nation mourns a true hero: Manjunath