Supreme Court orders Chief Justice of Madras High Court to constitute a larger bench for hearing Senthil Balaji's habeas corpus plea

Today, the Supreme Court bench including Justice Dipankar Datta, and Justice Surya Kant was hearing a plea related to the money laundering case filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). In this money laundering case, ED arrested V Senthil Balaji in June. The ED approached the Supreme Court claiming that the Madras High Court was wrong in entertaining the habeas corpus petition filed by Senthil Balaji’s wife. The Supreme Court ordered the Madras High Court’s Chief Justice, SV Gangapurwala, to form a larger bench as early as possible for hearing the habeas corpus petition seeking the release of V Senthil Balaji (Tamil Nadu Minister). Earlier, a division bench of the Madras High Court delivered a split decision regarding the maintainability of the habeas corpus petition after the remand of Balaji in the case. Therefore, there is a need for presenting the case to a larger bench. The Supreme Court ordered, “The learned Solicitor General, has at the outset, pointed out that the division bench has delivered a split verdict and thus we request the Chief Justice of Madras High Court to place the matter before a larger bench at the earliest and further request the assigned bench to decide the case as early as possible.” The matter was then posted by the Supreme Court for hearing on July 24.