The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea filed by DMK leader and former Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji seeking a clarification on whether he could be reappointed as a minister while the trial in the alleged cash-for-jobs scam is pending. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi permitted Balaji to withdraw the plea after signalling its disinclination to entertain the application.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Balaji, argued that the court’s April 28 order contained no explicit restriction on his ministership and that there could not be any judicial injunction preventing him from holding ministerial office during prosecution.

The bench, however, remarked, “We don’t read the order or cannot read the order as an injunction on you in becoming a min

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