New Delhi | The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain the bail plea of DMK minister V Senthil Balaji, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case, saying his sickness does not appear to be "serious or life-threatening".
Balaji was seeking bail on health grounds.
The top court was hearing an appeal against an order of the Madras High Court which dismissed his bail plea on October 19, saying he was likely to influence witnesses if enlarged on bail.
An apex court bench of justices Bela M Trivedi and SC Sharma, after perusing the health reports, said there was nothing serious in his health condition and granted liberty to Balaji to approach trial court to seek regular bail.
"Any observation made in the interim order against the petitioner on merits shall not come in the way of the petitioner in filing regular bail application," the bench said.
At the outset, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Balaji, requested the court to allow Balaji's application and referred to a condition called chronic lacunar infarction.
Justice Trivedi, however, said, "I checked on Google. It says that it can be cured by medication. It does not appear to be serious or life-threatening, otherwise, we would have seriously considered it." Rohatgi then said the need for hospitalisation of a prisoner was not a prerequisite for granting medical bail and said,"the man is sick, he has had a bypass." Justice Trivedi then observed," "Today, bypass is like getting an appendix removed," Objecting to Rohatgi's submission, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said, "Seventy per cent of inmates would be sick if we go by that." As the bench expressed disinclination to entertain the matter, the plea was withdrawn. It was dismissed as withdrawn.
The top court had earlier directed Balaji to place on record his medical reports.
While dismissing the bail plea, the high court had said from the health report of Balaji it did not appear to be a medical condition which could be taken care of only if he was released on bail.
Balaji was arrested on June 14 by the ED in connection with a money laundering case linked to a cash-for-jobs scam when he was the Transport Minister during the earlier AIADMK regime.