Legal Recap: SC on Senthil Balaji Case, Calcutta HC on WB Panchayat Elections

The Supreme Court has deferred hearing a plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) challenging a Madras High Court order that allowed the wife of Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji to file a habeas corpus petition.The ED had argued that the High Court had erred in entertaining the petition as it was not maintainable. However, the vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and MM Sundresh noted that the High Court was yet to render its opinion on the matter.As a result, the Supreme Court has decided to wait for the High Court's order before taking up the ED's plea.The Allahabad High Court has granted interim protection to a man accused of posting a video on social media in which he allegedly called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a "virus" that requires an "urgent antidote," according to Bar and Bench.The court found that the alleged comments by the accused, did not prima facie fall within the purview of Section 504 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which deals with intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace.Thus, the court directed that Farhan should not be arrested in the case until the next date of listing.The Calcutta High Court has directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to increase within 24 hours the number of central paramilitary forces to be deployed to oversee the upcoming West Bengal Panchayat elections.The court passed the order after noting that the present number of such personnel proposed to be engaged, which was roughly 1700 personnel, was thoroughly inadequate.The bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Uday Kumar also opined that, prima facie, the SEC appeared to have deliberately not complied with its earlier orders on the issue in letter and spirit, despite such orders being upheld by the Supreme Court.