The Supreme Court of India has permitted the current Chief of Enforcement Directorate Sanjay kumar Mishra to retain his position till 15 th of September.
The Centre however had requested for an extesion till October 15, in view of the Financial Action Task force review.
There was a lot of contention over the third extension granted to ther incumbent officer.
A bench comprising of Justice BR Gavai, Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sanjay Karol partially allowed the plea filed by the Central government for extension but made it clear that no further extension will be granted.
The order was passed on a plea was filed by the Union government for modification of the Court’s July 11 verdict which had set a deadline of July 31 for the appointment of a new director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The apex court in its July 11 verdict had struck down the earlier extension granted to Mishra on the ground that the same was in violation of its 2021 judgment.
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.