Mr Balaji was at the centre of a spat between the Tamil Nadu governor and chief minister recently. (File)
Nearly three weeks after the arrest of Tamil Nadu Minister Senthil Balaji, the Madras High Court has delivered a split verdict on a petition seeking the minister's release. The case will now be heard by a third judge.
In her petition, Mr Balaji's wife has argued that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has no powers to arrest and that the agency did not comply with arrest norms laid down by the Supreme Court.
The split verdict comes just days after the Tamil Nadu governor had unilaterally dismissed Mr Balaji from the state cabinet and then paused his order hours later. The move had invited a scathing response from Chief Minister MK Stalin.
While Justice J Nisha Banu, one of the two judges in the high court bench, ruled today that the petition is maintainable and Mr Balaji should be set free, the other judge, Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy, differed and said the minister's hospital stay should be excluded from the period of arrest.
NR Elango, the counsel for Mr Balaji, told NDTV, "Our argument has found favour with one judge. Now the status quo continues. Let's wait for the third judge." The ruling DMK has also said that the order is not a setback.
Electricity Minister Senthil Balaji was arrested by the ED on June 14 after searches were conducted for 18 hours in a money laundering case pertaining to his tenure as transport minister under the earlier Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK regime.
He was admitted to a hospital when he complained of chest pain and underwent a bypass surgery after tests revealed three blocks. While the Madras High Court, in an interim order, permitted Mr Balaji to be shifted to a private hospital in Chennai on 15 June for heart surgery, a lower court allowed the ED to interrogate him for eight days in the hospital, subject to consent by doctors.
Mr Balaji, who is in judicial custody, is still in the hospital and the ED has not interrogated him yet.
Chief Minister M K Stalin had chosen to retain Senthil Balaji as a minister without portfolio, calling his arrest by the ED politically motivated and part of a larger plan to target opposition-ruled states ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
On June 29, Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi had unilaterally dropped Senthil Balaji from the cabinet and then kept his order in abeyance hours later. Mr Stalin had hit back sharply at Mr Ravi, accusing him of showing "scant regard to the Constitution" and stating the governor has no power to dismiss his ministers.