Appeal against Senthilbalaji's bail: SC seeks formal plea for open court hearing
The bench told Sankaranarayanan if the review petition had been filed it would be decided on merits
Supreme Court Of India; V Senthilbalaji
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday asked a petitioner seeking a review of an order granting bail to minister V Senthilbalaji to move a formal plea for an open court hearing as judges observed that allegations made by the counsel against the 'competence' of the public prosecutor are serious in nature.
Appearing for the complainants, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan urged a bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih for an open court hearing of the review plea citing the accused has been made a minister in the Chief Minister M K Stalin-led government on September 29 after the bail.
The bench told Sankaranarayanan if the review petition had been filed it would be decided on merits.
The senior lawyer submitted while he was not casting any aspersion on the competence of the public prosecutor, he was only questioning the chain of command wherein he had to report regarding the cases involving Balaji.
"The public prosecutor in Senthilbalaji cases has to report to the director of the prosecution, who in turn reports to the State Home Minister and in this case the Home portfolio is with the Chief Minister," the senior counsel submitted.
The bench said Sankaranarayanan was levelling serious allegations against the public prosecutor and directed him to move an application for the same.
"We have already said that these cases are being monitored by this court. You file a substantive application and we will consider it," remarked Justice Oka while posting the hearing on November 25.