The Madras High Court on Friday completed hearing arguments on behalf of a group of petitioners who had challenged the continuation of V. Senthilbalaji in the Tamil Nadu Cabinet after his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case on June 14, 2023 and his remaining in judicial custody since then.
Chief Justice S.V. Gangapurwala and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu directed the High Court Registry to list the batch of cases next week, for hearing Advocate-General R. Shunmugasundaram in response to the arguments advanced by senior counsel V. Raghavachari and advocates K. Sakthivel and S. Sheik Ismail for three different petitioners.
Arguing on behalf of former AIADMK MP J. Jayavardhan, Mr. Raghavachari said the continuation of an arrested person in the Cabinet must be examined under the larger scheme of Constitutional law, though there was no specific legal provision prohibiting such a person from continuing as a Minister.
