Supreme Court sets aside extension given to ED Director Sanjay K Mishra

Satya Prakash

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New Delhi, July 11

In a setback to the Centre, the Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside the extension given to Sanjay Kumar Mishra as Director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), terming it as “illegal” and an attempt to annul its previous directions on the issue.

“Though the Legislature is competent to take away the basis of judgment it cannot annul the mandamus…In the Common Cause case there was a specific mandamus and it was directed that there should be no further extension… Thus the extensions given after the verdict were invalid in law,” a three-judge Bench led by Justice BR Gavai said.

The top court, however, allowed Mishra to continue as ED Director till July 31 and asked the Centre to appoint his successor in the meantime.

The Bench which also included Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sanjay Karol chose to uphold the amendment made to the CVC Act, the DSPE Act and the relevant rules which allowed the Centre to extend the term of the directors of ED and CBI up to five years.

“We have held scope of judicial review under legislative action is limited. If it affects fundamental rights, or is manifestly arbitrary…it can be set aside…We have held there is no manifest arbitrariness…The Legislature can legislate…extensions can be granted when it is about the high level officials…in the public interest and with reasons in writing,” it noted.

The order came on petitions filed by Congress leaders Jaya Thakur and Randeep Singh Surjewala; TMC leaders Saket Gokhale and Mahua Moitra; and Krishna Chander Singh, Vineet Narain and Manoharlal Sharma challenging the third extension of tenure given to Mishra as ED Director.

The Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) had on November 17 extended Mishra’s tenure as ED Director till November 18, 2023.

Mishra (62) is a 1984-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer of the Income Tax Department cadre. He was appointed Director of the ED for a period of two years on November 19, 2018. Subsequently, on November 13, 2020, the appointment letter was modified retrospectively by an order and his term of two years was replaced by three years.

Reacting to the Supreme Court verdict setting aside the extensions given to Sanjay Kumar Mishra as ED Director, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, “Those rejoicing over the Hon’ble SC decision on the ED case are delusional for various reasons.”

Those rejoicing over the Hon’ble SC decision on the ED case are delusional for various reasons:

The amendments to the CVC Act, which were duly passed by the Parliament, have been upheld.

Powers of the ED to strike at those who are corrupt and on the wrong side of the law…

Amit Shah (@AmitShah) July 11, 2023

“The amendments to the CVC Act, which were duly passed by the Parliament, have been upheld. Powers of the ED to strike at those who are corrupt and on the wrong side of the law remain the same,” Shah tweeted.

“ED is an institution which rises beyond any one individual and is focused on achieving its core objective – i.e. to investigate offences of money laundering and violations of foreign exchange laws. Thus, who the ED director is – that is not important because whoever assumes this role will take note of the rampant corruption of a cozy club of entitled dynasts who have an anti-development mindset,” the tweet further read.