Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Nov 18: Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul of the Supreme Court withdrew on Friday from hearing a group of petitions that contested the extension of Sanjay Kumar Mishra’s term as Director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
When Justice Kaul decided to withdraw himself from the case, the matter was heard by a bench consisting of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and AS Oka.
“Let the matter be placed before Chief Justice of India for appropriate orders. I cannot take up the matter,” he said.
A number of arguments challenging the legality of the extension granted to Mishra have been brought before the supreme court.
The petitioners said that the top court’s ruling from September 2021, which barred further extensions to Mishra’s tenure, was violated by the Central government’s decision to extend Mishra’s tenure.
In that decision, the Supreme Court upheld a prior ruling by the Central government from November 13, 2020, extending Mishra’s appointment order’s term from two to three years and making retroactive revisions.
Mishra was initially chosen as the ED Director in November 2018 for a two-year term. In November 2020, the two-year term came to an end. He would turn 60 and be eligible for retirement in May of 2020.
On November 13, 2020, the Central Government, however, published an office order in which it was said that the President had modified the 2018 order, changing the time period from two years to three years. The NGO Common Cause contested this before the Supreme Court.
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling from the previous year, the Central government passed an ordinance modifying the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) Act, giving it the authority to increase the ED Director’s term to a maximum of five years. This is currently being contested before the highest court.
On September 5, the Supreme Court designated Senior Attorney KV Viswanathan as an Amicus Curiae in the case.
The petitioners are members of political parties whose leaders are currently being investigated by the ED, according to the Central government’s affidavit, which claims that the current batch of arguments are politically motivated.
According to the statement, the petitioners Mahua Moitra, Saket Gokhale, Jaya Thakur, and Randeep Singh Surjewala are members of either the Trinamool Congress or the Congress party, whose top officials are under investigation by the ED.
The Union government defended the extension, saying it was necessary because the specialised work needed to be managed by a premier agency is an ongoing process and the person in charge should have a tenure of two to five years.
