Chennai: While holding that having a minister without a portfolio is a ‘constitutional travesty,’ Madras high court declined to interfere with the status of Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji, saying his continuation in the state cabinet is better left to the wisdom of Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin. Balaji has been in judicial custody since June 14 following his arrest in the cash-for-job case.
“The chief minister may be well advised to take a decision about the continuance of 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,” said the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Vijaykumar Gangapurwala and Justice P D Audikesavalu.
The court passed the order and made the observations while disposing of a batch of public interest writ petitions challenging Balaji’s continuance in the Tamil Nadu cabinet as a minister without portfolio.
“In the absence of any statutory disqualification, it would not be permissible for the court to issue certain directions to the governor to take a decision in a particular manner,” the court said. As to the contention of the petitioners that a person who cannot discharge his duties as a minister should not be allowed to continue at the cost of exchequer, the court said, “He is a minister without portfolio, meaning thereby, no work is allotted to him.”
“He is a minister for the name sake. In other words, a minister without any work. Such a person certainly will not be entitled for any allowances because he will not be officiating any work, nor any work is allotted to him. Certainly, no purpose is served by just ceremonially retaining him as a minister,” the judges noted.