The story so far: In a major setback to Tamil Nadu Minister V. Senthilbalaji, the Madras High Court on July 14 upheld the legality of his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and his subsequent remand in judicial custody in a money-laundering case linked to a cash-for-jobs scam.
Justice C.V. Karthikeyan delivered the ruling on a habeas corpus petition filed by Mr. Balaji’s wife for his release following a split verdict by a Division Bench of the High Court on July 4. While Justice J. Nisha Banu allowed the petition, declared the Minister’s detention to be illegal, and consequently ordered his release, Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy disagreed with the conclusions as well as reasons given by the senior judge on the Bench. Accordingly, he dismissed the petition and held it to not be maintainable.
Within hours of the pronouncement of the diametrically opposite verdicts, the ED approached the Supreme Court to immediately transfer and decide the question of the Minister’s custody. However, a Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta refused to entertain the plea and instead ordered the matter to be placed before High Court Chief Justice S.V. Gangapurwala to name a third judge who will hear the case afresh, and whose decision will finally tilt the verdict by a majority of 2:1.
