Aastha Thakur
Published on August 02, 2022 at 17:54 IST
The Supreme Court today heard the petition filed challenging the order issued by the Central Government on November 17, 2021 to extend the term of the ED Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra by one more year.
Bench of CJI NV Ramana and Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli, has sought response of the Central Government and gave next date to the case for further consideration after 10 days. Led by Chief Justice of India ordered that, “We issue notice on all the petitions. List after 10 days.”
In present, total 8 petitions has been filed by Congress and TMC leaders and others including Dr. Jaya Thakur, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Saket Gokhale, Mahua Moitra challenging the tenure extension of the ED director Sanjay Kumar.
The petition filed by petitioner contends that if the extension is allowed as decided by Centre, it will violate the apex court verdict which ruled against more extensions to Mishra.
The 2021 verdict, the apex 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 the term of two-year in November 2018 which expired in November 2020. In May 2020, he had reached the retirement age of 60.
However, on November 13, 2020, the Central Government issued an order stating that the 2018 rule of “two years” has been modified by the President. Hence, as per newly issued order the tenure term is period of “three years” which was challenged at the Supreme Court by the NGO Common Cause.
Then appointed-Division Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai held that the Central government has authority to make retrospective changes but it should be done only in the rarest of rare cases.
The Court further stated that the tenure of Mishra, which was set to expire, cannot be extended further.
After this decision of the apex court last year, the Centre 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.
The present plea now challenged this ordinance before the apex court.
