The Madras High Court on September 5 advised Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin to take a call on jailed DMK Minister V Senthil Balaji remaining part of the Council of Ministers. While passing an order disposing of a batch of petitions filed against V Senthil Balaji’s continuance in the state cabinet as a Minister without portfolio, Chief Justice of the Madras High Court Sanjay Vijaykumar Gangapurwala and Justice PD Audikesavalu observed that this did not augur well for “the purity of the administration” and constitutional ethos.
Senthil Balaji has been retained as a Minister without portfolio by CM Stalin even after his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on July 14 in connection with a money laundering case related to a cash-for-jobs scam in the state Transport Department during the previous AIADMK rule. The scam came to light in 2015 when Senthil Balaji was the Minister for Transport between 2011-2015.
There were three petitions filed in regard to his remaining part of the Cabinet – one by advocate ML Ravi of Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi, another by advocate S Mini Ramachandran and yet another by former South Chennai AIADMK MP J Jayavardhan. The petitioners wanted the High Court to intervene and exercise its powers under Article 226 (Power of High Courts to issue certain writs) of the Constitution to declare the Minister as unfit to hold the post.
The Tamil Nadu government argued that a person could not be disqualified from holding a Cabinet berth because an FIR was registered against him. Appearing for the state, Advocate General R Shanmugasundaram argued that it was the prerogative of the Chief Minister to decide on the members of his cabinet.
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