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Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi has declined the offer to return as India’s attorney general, sources told media on Sunday. The development came a week after Rohatgi was reported to succeed senior lawyer KK Venugopal, who is all set to demit office as the Attorney General of India at the end of this month.

K K Venugopal, 91, was re-appointed as the top law officer of the country for three months on June 29. However, while he had declined to continue in the position due to “personal reasons”, he later acceded to a request by the government, Law Ministry officials said.

Venugopal was appointed in July 2017, succeeding Rohatgi. According to reports, Rohatgi was set to take over on October 1 for his second stint as the country’s attorney general after his first from June 2014 to June 2017.

Despite being hit by windfall taxes, state-owned Oil India has realised an average price of about $80 per barrel for its crude this quarter.

Windfall tax was imposed at the beginning of July and has been revised every fortnight.

Winfall tax has curbed price realisation for domestic oil producers. The average windfall tax has been about $25-26 per barrel during the quarter and the average price realisation for the company has been about $80 per barrel, said Harish Madhav, Director (Finance) at Oil India.

Since the price realisation this quarter is higher than in the same period last year, the profits are likely to be healthy, he added. The average crude realisation in the July-September quarter of 2021-22 was $71.35 per barrel, which was much higher than $42.75 in the second quarter of 2020-21.

An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 on the Richter scale occurred in Campbell Bay in Andaman and Nicobar Island in the wee hours on Friday, informed the National Center for Seismology (NCS).

The depth of the earthquake was 75 km below the ground and it occurred at 2:30 am.

"Earthquake of Magnitude: 6.1, Occurred on 24-09-2022, 02:23:00 IST, Lat: 3.71 and Long: 95.96, Depth: 75 Km, Location: 431 km SSE of Campbell Bay, Andaman and Nicobar island, India," NCS said in a tweet.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has announced Dr M Srinivas as the new Director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. He will be replacing Dr Randeep Guleria whose tenure has come to an end on September 23. Dr Srinivas is the Dean, ESIC, Medical College and Hospital, Sanathnagar in Hyderabad. 

The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions said in a notification that Dr Guleria will continue for six more months with effect from September 23 or till the joining of the new Director, whichever is earlier. 

Dr Srinivas will be compensated in the scale of pay of Rs 2,25,000 fixed plus NPA of 20 per cent (pay + NPA not exceeding Rs 2,37,500) for a period of 5 years with effect from the date of assumption of the role, or till he is 65 years of age, or until further orders, whichever is earliest. 

A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader's son has been named as the prime accused in the murder case of a teenager in Uttarakhand. Pulkit Arya, the prime accused, has been arrested for his alleged involvement in the murder of a 19-year-old girl who worked as a receptionist at his resort in the Laxman Jhula area of Rishikesh. The girl was reported missing on September 18.

The girl was reported to be missing on September 18. According to police sources, she went to Rishikesh that night around 8 o'clock with Pulkit Arya, resort manager Saurabh Bhaskar, and another accused named Ankit, alias Pulkit Gupta.