The Supreme Court on Friday (July 31, 2026) directed the stay of arrest of former Tamil Nadu Prohibition, Electricity and Excise Minister, V. Senthilbalaji, in a corruption case registered by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) on July 28.

Earlier in the morning Justice V. Mohana recused herself from the hearing. At 1 p.m., a Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi sat separately to hear Mr. Senthilbalaji’s appeal against a Madras High Court decision to refuse him anticipatory bail.

The apex court Bench said with the change in government in Tamil Nadu, there was no cause of worry for the State that Mr. Senthilbalaji would influence the trajectory of the investigation. Senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Mukul Rohatgi and Amit Anand Tiwari, for Mr. Senthilbalaji, said their client would full cooperate with the investigation. Senior advocates Guru Krishnakumar and Siddharth Dave said Mr. Senthilbalaji had a history of influencing and delaying cases whether or not he was in power or not. Justice Bagchi said the State should not be afraid of such things, and said there was no chance of the former Minister absconding while on bail.

The Bench directed Senthilbalaji to deposit his passport, and issued notice to the State of Tamil Nadu.

A day ago, Magras HC’s Justice G.K. Ilanthiraiyan had dismissed Mr. Senthilbalaji’s advance bail petition after observing that the case relates to the charge of having caused a loss of crores of rupees to the public exchequer when he was a Minister and therefore, it required custodial interrogation.

Opposing the plea, State Public Prosecutor R. John Sathyan said that the loss to the public exchequer appeared to be at least ₹100 crore and that the entire crime could be unearthed only through the investigation of the case and by subjecting the accused to interrogation.