A new public interest litigation petition has been filed at the Madras High Court, questioning Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi’s authority to withhold his order dismissing arrested Minister V. Senthilbalaji from the Council of Ministers, following his arrest by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in a money laundering case on June 14, and his subsequently remaining in judicial custody.
Chief Justice S.V. Gangapurwala and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu took up the new case for hearing along with three other petitions which have already been filed questioning the authority of the arrested Minister, now recuperating at a private hospital in Chennai after undergoing a beating heart coronary artery bypass surgery on June 22, to continue in the Cabinet without any portfolio.
Senior Counsel V. Raghavachari, representing one of the petitioners, said, the litigants had no issues with the continuation of Senthilbalaji as a Member of the Legislative Assembly since the Representation of the People Act, 1951 provides for disqualification only if a legislator is convicted in a criminal case and imposed with two or more years of imprisonment. He clarified that the litigants were only against Mr. Senthilbalaji’s continuation in the Council of Ministers, that too without any portfolio, despite facing a case involving moral turpitude and having been arrested by the ED. “When a Minister is expected to perform a public duty, how can there be a Minister without a portfolio,” the senior counsel wondered.
