The division bench dismissed the petition, indicating that the Supreme Court will decide the next move in the case of Senthil Balaji.
In a major disappointment to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the High Court of Madras on July 25, denied passing further orders deciding upon the custodial dates for interrogating minister Senthil Balaji.
Source: The Hindu
The Madras HC also closed the Habeas Corpus Petition filed by Megala, wife of Senthil Balaji on Tuesday and refused to move further, saying the case is pending before the SC.
The division of the bench comprised of justices Nisha Banu and Bharatha Chakravarthy. When the issue was brought before the bench, Justice Nisha Banu stated that she stands by her decision from July 4 and that she has no more grounds to stay in this case.
On behalf of the ED, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta stated that the central investigative agency intends to interrogate Balaji and that he is ready to fight the case. However, NR Elango, the senior attorney representing Balaji’s wife Megala, stated that the ED has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court challenging a section of the verdict handed by the third judge, CV Karthikeyan.
Senthil Balaji: Course of the case
The Jobs-for-Cash Scam for which Senthil Balaji is arrested dates back to the period of 2011- 2015 when AIADMK was in power in Tamil Nadu. Senthil Balaji who was then the Transport Minister, was accused of accepting bribes for job appointments in the transport department and the scandal involved crores of rupees.
In the year 2018, a technical staff member of the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) petitioned the Madras High Court about alleged fraud in job offers in the MTC.
As a consequence of the allegations, ED conducted a search operation at Senthil’s office at the Secretariat on June 13. Followed by the questioning of nearly 18 hours he was arrested by ED in money laundering case, and remanded in judicial custody until June 28.
Following, Megala, wife of Senthil Balaji filed a Habeas Corpus petition in the Madras High Court.
Split Verdict
On July 4, a bench comprising of Justices Banu and Chakravarthy issued a split verdict in Megala’s HCP.
Source: Bar and Bench
Justice Banu concluded that the ED has no authority over the police to claim custody of a detainee and hence has no right to attempt to deduct Balaji’s hospital treatment days from the detention time.
Contrary to his co-judge, Justice Chakravarthy found that the ED’s detention was not unlawful since the ED was authorised to take a person into prison for questioning after detaining them under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
He further ordered that the minister’s judicial detention be prolonged for another 10 days before being transferred to the jail hospital for additional treatment.
The Third Judge
The case was assigned to Justice CV Karthikeyan as a third judge by the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court. After hearing the case, the third court ruled on July 14 that if the ED has the authority to arrest someone, it also has the authority to keep them in custody.
In fixing the date of detention, the judge sent the case to the division bench of Justices Banu and Chakravarthy for further proceedings.
