CHENNAI: The third judge of Madras High Court, Justice CV Karthikeyan, assigned to decide the legality of Senthil Balaji’s arrest and the powers of Enforcement Directorate (ED) to take him into custody for interrogation, would hear the habeas corpus petition (HCP) filed by the minister’s wife Megala on July 11 and 12.
When the matter came up for hearing, senior counsel NR Elango representing the petitioner expressed difficulties to advance arguments on Saturday, as suggested by the judge earlier. Subsequently, July 11 and 12 were suggested and agreed upon by Elango and Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, who represents the ED, for advancing arguments.
Senior counsel Kapil Sibal will appear for the petitioner, the court was informed. He would advance arguments on July 11 and Tushar Mehta on the following day. The points of differences zeroed in on for arguments are: the right of ED to seek police custody of the accused person; the maintainability of the HCP, filed particularly after the judicial remand of the accused was ordered; and the exclusion of the hospital period from the first 15 days of remand for calculating police custody.
The judge said both sides to restrict themselves within these points of difference for arguments.
Since the judicial custody of Balaji will end on July 12, Justice CV Karthikeyan said the principal sessions court can decide on the further course.
PIL petitioner told to deposit Rs 3.50 lakh
Chennai: The first bench of Madras HC headed by CJ SV Gangapurwala directed PIL petitioner Rangarajan Narasimhan to deposit Rs 3.50 lakh for the seven petitions on temple issues. The bench said the amount would be returned if his bonafide is proved, otherwise, it would be considered as fine for filing the petitions without merits.