New Delhi: Following a split verdict by the Madras high court on a habeas corpus petition challenging Tamil Nadu minister V. Senthilbalaji’s arrest, the Supreme Court has requested for the matter to be decided at the earliest.He was arrested on June 14 in a case pertaining to an alleged job-for-cash scam in the state’s transport department between 2011 and 2016, when Senthilbalaji was the transport minister in the AIADMK government. He is now a member of the DMK. The chargesheet against him and 46 others was filed in 2021 on the eve of the state assembly elections.A two-judge Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta made the request to the Madras high court while hearing a different petition made before it by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday, July 4, Bar and Bench reported.The Madras high court’s split verdict was also delivered on July 4. The habeas corpus petition it was deciding on was filed by Senthilbalaji’s wife S. Megala.“We request the chief justice of the Madras high court to place the matter before a larger bench at the earliest and further request to the assigned bench to decide the case as early as possible,” LiveLaw quoted the Supreme Court bench as saying.Just before making its request, the Supreme Court bench denied solicitor general Tushar Mehta’s request for it to resolve the impasse created as a result of the high court’s split verdict.Representing the ED, Mehta had said, “Please hear the matter and decide it, rather than it going to a three-judge bench of the high court. Every day that the respondent remains in the hospital, there would be tampering of evidence.”Also Read: Tamil Nadu Minister Goes Through Coronary Angiogram Soon After ED ArrestSenior advocate Kapil Sibal responded on behalf of Senthilbalaji that asking the Supreme Court to do so amounted to ‘bypassing’ the high court.“How can the high court be bypassed like this? There is a split verdict and the matter has to go to a third judge, since this court had said that it would wait for the high court to decide it first. Under what circumstances can you bring it to this court now?” he asked.The petition that the apex court was hearing was related to the ED’s objection that the Madras high court shouldn’t be entertaining Megala’s habeas corpus petition, Bar and Bench’s report said.HC delivers split verdict In the high court, a two-judge bench comprising Justices J. Nisha Banu and Bharatha Chakravarthy disagreed on whether Megala’s petition was maintainable.Justice Nisha Banu thought it was, and observed that the ED wasn’t empowered to seek police custody of Senthilbalaji under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, LiveLaw reported.But Justice Chakravarthy thought otherwise, arguing that the petition would only be maintainable if Senthilbalaji’s arrest and detention were proved illegal.Also Read: In Editorials, Major English Newspapers Slam TN Guv’s Unilateral Decision to Sack MinisterThe DMK MLA is in judicial custody in relation to an alleged jobs-for-cash scam in Tamil Nadu’s transport department between 2011 and 2016, when he was the transport minister in a different state government.He has been admitted to a private hospital in Chennai for over two weeks.He complained of chest pain soon after being arrested by the ED for the scam case and was advised to undergo bypass surgery. The Madras high court allowed him to be shifted to the private hospital on June 15.He was also the centrepiece of the most recent tussle between the state’s governor R.N. Ravi and its elected government when the former dismissed him unilaterally as minister on June 29. Ravi put the unprecedented dismissal on hold a few hours later.