The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere with the Madras High Court judgment that left it to the Tamil Nadu chief minister to decide on minister V Senthil Balaji’s continuation in the state cabinet following the latter’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case linked to a jobs-for-cash scam.
A bench of Justices A S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan which perused the high court judgment said, “We concur with the view taken… no interference is called for under Article 136.”
The bench also remarked orally that a governor cannot remove a minister without the chief minister recommending the same.
Following his arrest, all portfolios were withdrawn from Balaji, who continues to be a minister. This was challenged by petitioner R L Ravi, an advocate, before the Madras High Court.
Disposing of the plea, the high court had said that “ministers without portfolios do not have any specific ministries nor they do have carved out responsibilities. The chief minister is an executive head. It is the responsibility of an executive head to assign ministerial responsibilities to an elected representative. However, if he feels that a particular elected representative cannot be assigned the responsibility of a minister, there cannot be moral or constitutional basis to retain such a member of the Legislative Assembly as a minister without portfolio, which would be opposed to the ethos, good governance and constitutional morality or integrity”.
The high court, however, left the decision on Balaji to the chief minister saying “the Chief Minister of the State of Tamil Nadu may be well advised to take a decision about the continuance of V Senthil Balaji…as a Minister without Portfolio, which serves no purpose and which does not augur well with the Principles of Constitutional ethos on goodness, good governance and purity in administration”.
