The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the two extensions given to incumbent Enforcement Directorate chief Sanjay Kumar Mishra in November 2021 and November 2022 were illegal, Live Law reported.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol said that those extensions were in violation of the Supreme Court’s 2021 judgement in which it had directed the government not to extend Mishra’s tenure any further.
The court, however, permitted Kumar to continue in his position till July 31. This was after the Centre had expressed concern over finding a new chief in the middle of a peer review being carried out by the Financial Action Task Force, reported NDTV.
The judges were hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the extensions granted to Mishra. Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra and Congress leader Randeep Surjewala were among the petitioners.
Mishra had first been appointed as the Enforcement Directorate director for a period of two years on November 19, 2018. In 2020, his tenure was extended for a year by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government.
In November 2021, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, the government introduced two ordinances to ensure that the directors of the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation could have tenures of up to five years. This enabled Mishra to continue for another year.
In November 2022, the government again extended the 1984-batch Indian Revenue Service officer’s tenure for a year. He was to remain in office till November 18, 2023, according to the notification issued by the government.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the amendments made to the Central Vigilance Commission Act and the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, which allows the Centre to extend the term of probe agency chiefs.
The judges said that extensions can be granted to officials in public interest and held that there are sufficient safeguards.
“[But] the legislature cannot annul the specific mandamus that barred further extension...That would amount to sitting in appeal over judicial act,” Justice Gavai said while holding the November 2021 and November 2022 extensions as illegal, Live Law reported.
Earlier, the Centre had told the Supreme Court that the pleas challenging Mishra’s extension were politically motivated as they have been filed by members of the Congress or Trinamool Congress, whose leaders are being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate.
Under Mishra’s tenure, the Enforcement Directorate has launched an investigation against several leaders of the Opposition such as Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, Trinamool Congress’ Abhishek Banerjee, National Congress leaders Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar, Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik, National Conference leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, among others.
Also read: How the ordinance giving the CBI director a five-year term undermines the agency’s autonomy
In a tweet on Tuesday evening, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that those who were happy about the court’s verdict were being “delusional for various reasons”. He pointed out that court upheld the amendments introduced to extend tenures of CBI and Enforcement Directorate chiefs to up to five years.
“Powers of the ED to strike at those who are corrupt and on the wrong side of the law remain the same,” Shah tweeted. “...Who the ED director is - that is not important because whoever assumes this role will take note of the rampant corruption of a cozy club of entitled dynasts who have an anti-development mindset.”
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