Former Tamil Nadu minister Senthil Balaji has urged the Supreme Court to remove some of the comments from the September 2022 order to restore criminal complaints against him in the scam related to giving money.
On 8 September 2022, the Supreme Court had canceled the order of the Madras High Court for cancellation of grievances against the former minister on the basis of agreement between all parties.
The Supreme Court said that there is evidence of corrupt conduct to get employment in the Transport Corporation during Balaji’s tenure (during 2011-2015) as a minister in the Tamil Nadu government. At the same time, Balaji argued that the comments made in the judgment of 8 September 2022 can affect the lower court in the case and their right to hear.
The Supreme Court said in its 2022 judgment, ‘We are forced to say that no newbie of criminal law will leave crimes under the PC (Prevention of Corruption) Act out of the final report. The IO (investigating officer) attempt ‘ready to attack but is afraid of injuring’. ‘
It said that the state government should have conducted a comprehensive investigation into the entire scam, not the accused should have allowed any one case to be separated in such a way as if it was a personal money dispute. Senthil Balaji argued that since the Supreme Court has made these comments against him, the lower court is likely to suffer from prejudice and this would be a violation of their right to independent and fair hearing under Article 21 of the Constitution.
After the Supreme Court was reprimanded on April 27, Balaji. Stalin resigned from the state cabinet led by Stalin. On 23 April, the Supreme Court asked Balaji to choose one between the post and freedom and warned that if he does not resign from the post of minister in Tamil Nadu, his bail would be canceled.
The Supreme Court granted bail to Balaji on 26 September 2024, who spent more than 15 months in jail and said that there is no possibility of completion of the case in the near future.
In 2018, the ED had registered a case of funds in July 2021 to investigate the allegations by the Tamil Nadu police in 2018 and the complaints of the people suffering from the alleged scam. The ED’s charge sheet claimed that during his tenure as a minister, the entire recruitment process in the State Transport Department got corruption.