From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: A supreme Court bench on Monday issued a notice to the Centre on the pleas challenging the third extension granted to Enforcement Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Vikram Nath issued notices to the Union of India, Central Vigilance Commission and the ED director on a plea filed by Madhya Pradesh Congress leader Jaya Thakur.
“Issue notice returnable in six weeks,” the bench said.
The plea accused the central government of destroying the “basic structure” of democracy by misusing the enforcement agencies against its political opponents.
“The impugned extension of tenure of Respondent No.2 (Mishra) is destroying the democratic process of our country, hence the present writ petition has been filed by the petitioner which may kindly be allowed in the interest of justice,” the plea said.
The Congress leader said the top court had passed a specific order that no further extension shall be granted to Mishra but the Centre gave him a second extension from November 17, 2021 to November 17, 2022 after which she filed a petition on which a notice was issued.
She said the government has no respect towards the rule of law as a one-year extension has been granted to Mishra from November 18, 2022 despigte pendency of her writ petition.
On November 18, Justice S K Kaul had recused himself from hearing the pleas challenging the amended law allowing extension of up to five years for the ED director, a day after Mishra was given a fresh one-year extension as the chief of the anti-money laundering agency.
A batch of petitions, including those filed by Congress leaders Randeep Singh Surjewala and Jaya Thakur, and TMC’s Mahua Moitra and Saket Gokhale, had come up for hearing before the bench.
The notification issued by the government said the 1984 batch IRS officer will be in office till November 18, 2023.
Mishra, 62, was first appointed the director of the ED for two years on November 19, 2018. Later, by an order dated November 13, 2020, the central government modified the appointment letter retrospectively and his two-year term was changed to three years.
The government promulgated an ordinance last year under which the tenure of the ED and CBI chiefs could be extended by up to three years after the mandated term of two years.
Congress leader Surjewala’s plea challenged the amendment made by the central government to the fundamental concept decided by the apex court in two judgements in the Vineet Narayan and the Common Cause cases on fixed tenure for such officials.
A batch of pleas have been filed on the issue, mostly challenging the Central Vigilance Commission (Amendment) Act, 2021 which provides for extension of the term of ED’s director up to five years.
