Fact of the Case 

In the case of the wife of V Senthil Balaji, Minister for Electricity, Prohibition & Excise, Tamil Nadu, the wife filed a petition for habeas corpus in response to his detention by the Directorate of Enforcement for money laundering in a case involving a work fraud involving payment in cash.

Conclusion of the Court 

The wife of V. Senthil Balaji, Minister for Electricity, Prohibition & Excise, Tamil Nadu, filed a habeas corpus petition against his arrest by the Directorate of Enforcement for money laundering in a cash-for-job scam case. The division bench of Madras High Court Justices Nisha Banu and Bharatha Chakravarthy issued a split decision. further brought the situation to the Chief Justice for additional directives

According to Justice Nisha Banu, the ED is not given the authority to request police detention under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, which is relevant to the maintainability of the Habeas Corpus case. In addition, the court denied the ED’s request to have Senthil Balaji’s medical treatment time excluded from the calculation of custody time. As a result, the petitioner was unable to establish that the remand was unlawful, according to Justice Bharatha Chakravarthy, who ruled that the habeas corpus petition is unmaintainable. He claims that since Senthil Balaji has been receiving treatment since the day of the arrest, it was in Senthil Balaji’s best interest that he hasn’t even been in ED’s custody for a day. Because of this, Bharatha Chakravarthy did not factor in Balaji’s time spent receiving therapy when determining the length of custody.