CHENNAI: Holding that the decision to invoke Article 355 of the Constitution rests with the executive, the Madras High Court dismissed a petition seeking orders to invoke it in Tamil Nadu in the wake of alleged failure to maintain public peace during the search and arrest of minister V Senthil Balaji. The petition was filed by Varaaki, a journalist, who sought an order to the secretary to the governor to forward a representation sent by him to the President’s office to invoke Article 355 so that the Centre could intervene in the affairs of the state government.
The first bench of Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice PD Audikesavalu recently dismissed the petition. The bench said, “The High Court does not have the power to issue directions to the Centre to invoke Article 355 of the Constitution as it is part of the policy decision on the part of the Executive, and therefore, they are more suited to assess the current situation (in TN).”
“Any direction would be in violation of the theory of separation of power. Moreover, in our opinion the current set of facts as explained before do not fall under the ambit of internal disturbance,” the court said while dismissing the petition as misconceived and lacking merit for consideration. The bench held that the incident of officials of the Central agencies being mobbed and manhandled during searches and arrest of the minister would not be tantamount to internal disturbance under Article 355.
“Internal disturbance” under Article 355 conveys the sense of domestic chaos, which takes the colour of a security threat from its associate expression “external aggression”, the court said, adding that it would require a case of large-scale public disorder that throws out of gear the even tempo of administration and endangers the security of the state.