Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul of Supreme Court has recused from hearing a batch of pleas which challenge the extension of tenure of the current Director of Enforcement Directorate (ED), Sanjay Kumar Mishra.
The matter came on Friday, before the bench comprising of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice AS Oka when Justice Kaul chose to recuse from the case.
Justice Kaul said that the matter should be placed before Chief Justice of India for appropriate orders as he cannot take up the matter.
The top court has a batch of pleas which challenge, the validity of the extension given to Mishra.
The petitioners have said that the extension of Mishra’s tenure was in violation of Supreme Court verdict dated September 2021 which ruled against more extensions to Mishra.
The Supreme Court had affirmed an earlier judgement of the Central government dated November 13, 2020, which made retrospective revisions to Mishra’s appointment order, increasing his term from two to three years.
Mishra was first appointed as the ED Director for a two-year term in November 2018. The two-year term expired in November 2020. In May 2020, he had reached the retirement age of 60.
The Central Government however, issued an office order on November 13, 2020, stating that the President had modified the 2018 order to the effect that a time of ‘two years’ was changed to a period of ‘three years.’
This was challenged at the Supreme Court by the NGO Common Cause.
The Central government brought in an ordinance amending the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) Act, empowering itself to extend the tenure of the ED Director up to five years after the Supreme Court’s decision last year which was later challenged before the top court.
Senior Advocate KV Viswanathan was made the Amicus Curiae in the case by the Apex Court.
In the affidavit filed by the Central government said that the present batch of pleas are politically motivated since the petitioners belong to political parties whose leaders are currently under the ED scanner.
The petitioners Jaya Thakur, Saket Gokhale, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Mahua Moitra belong to either the Congress party or the Trinamool Congress whose top leaders are being probed by the ED.
The Union government defended the extension, by saying that work in these agencies require special talent and needs in a continuous process, and the person leading the organisation should have a tenure of two to five years.
The ED Director Mishra was given another one-year extension.