T.N. Senthilbalaji arrest | Supreme Court defers hearing in ED plea till after Madras HC judgment
The Hindu
The Supreme Court listed the case for July 4
The Supreme Court on June 21 provided no immediate relief to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has challenged the arrested Tamil Nadu Minister V. Senthilbalaji’s shifting to a private hospital and maintainability of habeas corpus petition filed in Madras High Court.
The ED had moved the Supreme Court accusing Mr. Senthilbalaji, arrested in a money-laundering case related to a cash-for-jobs scam, of “feigning illness immediately upon arrest” and getting himself admitted in a private hospital during remand in a bid to render the investigation “otiose and meaningless”.
The ED filed two petitions, one against the habeas corpus petition filed by Mr. Senthilbalaji’s wife in the Madras High Court; and another against the conditions laid for the ED by the Principal Sessions Court while undertaking custodial interrogation of the accused.
While keeping ED’s petitions pending, the Supreme Court made the decision to wait for the final opinion from the Madras High Court, which will hear the case on June 22. The Supreme Court listed the case for July 4.
The Supreme Court requested the High Court to decide on merits without being influenced by observations made before it or in the apex court.
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.