The Centre on Friday appointed Rahul Navin, an Indian Revenue Service officer of the 1993 batch, as the acting director of the Enforcement Directorate.

Navin, who replaced Sanjay Kumar Mishra, will hold the position till the appointment of a regular director or until further orders, the finance ministry said in an order.

Mishra’s tenure came to an end on September 15 after the Supreme Court in July granted him an extension in the “larger public interest”. This was after the top court had held that two extensions granted to Mishra by the central government were illegal.

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Mishra had been appointed as the Enforcement Directorate director for a period of two years on November 19, 2018. His tenure was extended in 2020 for a year by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government.

Following this, the non-governmental organisation Common Cause filed a public interest litigation, seeking for the extension order to be set aside as they claimed that Mishra’s three-year tenure violated Section 25 of the Central Vigilance Commission Act, reported The Indian Express.

The Supreme Court in September 2021 directed the government not to extend Mishra’s tenure any further. However, the Centre 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. The ordinance allowed Mishra to continue for another year.

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In November 2022, the government again extended his tenure for a year. He was to remain in office till November 18, 2023, according to the notification issued by the government. However, the Supreme Court intervened and ordered Mishra to leave office on July 31. The tenure extended to September 15 after the Centre made a request to the court.

Also read: How the ordinance giving the CBI director a five-year term undermines the agency’s autonomy