Centre moves Supreme Court seeking extension of tenure for ED chief SK Mishra

The Centre on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court seeking extension of tenure of Enforcement Directorate Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra.

The top court will hear the matter on 27 July. As per the Supreme Court judgement, Mishra’s term will end on 31 July. Earlier this month, a bench of Justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol had directed Mishra to quit on 31 July – four months before his third extension ends in November. The court had ruled that the two extensions given to him in November 2021 and November 2022 were illegal, according to a Scroll report. On Wednesday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta urged a bench headed by Gavai to urgently hear a plea seeking a revision of the judgment. The court agreed to take up the case at 3.30 pm on Thursday. Mishra had first been appointed as the Enforcement Directorate director for a period of two years on November 19, 2018. In 2020, his tenure was extended for a year by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government. In September 2021, the Supreme Court had directed the government not to extend Mishra’s tenure any further. But despite the ruling, the government introduced two ordinances to ensure that the directors of the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation could have tenures of up to five years. This enabled Mishra to continue for another year. In November 2022, the government again extended the 1984-batch Indian Revenue Service officer’s tenure for a year. He was to remain in office till 18 November, 2023, according to the notification issued by the government. With inputs from agencies