Senthil Balaji arrest: Madras High Court closes Habeas Corpus case; Justice Nisha Banu says she “stands by her order”

The Madras High Court on Tuesday closed proceedings in the Habeas Corpus Petition (HCP) filed by S Megala, wife of Tamil Nadu minister, V Senthil Balaji, challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the cash for jobs money laundering case..The bench of Justices Nisha Banu and D Bharatha Chakravarthy closed the proceedings after observing that the Supreme Court was already seized of the matter, after both parties to the case filed appeals in the matter..The High Court bench, therefore, decided against passing any further orders in the case, even on the limited scope of calculating the date from which Senthil Balaji's custody period would start.The question of when Balaji's custody period would run had emerged since he was admitted to a government hospital by the ED just hours after his arrest.On Tuesday, the High Court left it for the Supreme Court to pass any further directions on this aspect. .Justice Banu also made it clear that she stood by her earlier order, wherein she had held Senthil Balaji's arrest to be illegal and directed that the minister be set free. Justice Chakravarthy had, however, disagreed with her leading to a split verdict. "There is no question of hearing anything. I have already said that he (Senthil Balaji) should be released. So how can I pass any orders in the date or period of custody? All I want to say is that I stand by my order. Now both parties have approached the SC. I do not have anything further to say in the matter. Why should we keep it pending?" Justice Banu said, when the matter was taken up yesterday. .On July 4 this year, the bench of Justices Banu and Bharatha Chakravarthy had delivered a split verdict on Megala's HCP. Justice Banu had held that the ED had no power to seek police custody of an accused arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, and ruled that Senthil Balaji must be released. Differing from this opinion, Justice Bharatha Chakravarthy held that the ED was entitled to police custody of the accused and that the minister's arrest was legal and not in breach of any legal safeguards. .The matter was then referred to the third judge, Justice CV Karthikeyan, who concurred with the opinion of Justice Chakravarthy and ruled that there had been no illegality in Senthil Balaji's arrest and that the ED was entitled to seek the minister's custody.Justice Karthikeyan also aligned with Justice Chakravarthy's view that the period of Senthil Balaji's hospital stay can be excluded from the period of his custody with the ED. However, he referred the case back to the division bench to decide on when the ED's custody over Balaji would start. This led to the appeal before the top court..On Tuesday, after Justice Banu informed that she did not wish to pass further orders, Justice Chakravarthy agreed that the matter before the High Court should be closed, and that the Supreme Court could pass all further directions.