The Supreme Court has extended the tenure of ED Director SK Mishra until September 15. He will continue in his current position for a bit longer
The Supreme Court allowed ED Director SK Mishra to continue as ED Director till 15 September. The Central Government had approached the Supreme Court seeking extension of the tenure of Enforcement Directorate Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra. At the same time, the Supreme Court has approved the extension of the tenure of SK Mishra as ED Director.
The top court had earlier held the term extension illegal
Significantly, before this, the central government had suffered a severe blow from the Supreme Court. The extension of tenure of ED Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra was held illegal by the apex court. The apex court gave him time till July 31, 2023 to complete his pending work. Also, a bench of Justice BR Gavai, Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sanjay Karol upheld the amendment of the Central Vigilance Commission Act and the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act to extend the tenure of the ED director to a maximum of five years.
Sanjay Kumar Mishra was appointed as the director in 2018
Significantly, Sanjay Kumar Mishra was appointed as the full-time chief of the Enforcement Directorate in November 2018. Sanjay Mishra is a 1984-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer of the Income Tax cadre. He was earlier appointed as the principal special director in the probe agency. Prior to his appointment in ED, Sanjay Mishra was working as the Chief Commissioner of Income Tax Department in Delhi.
Got the first term extension in 2020
The central government had first given him a one-year extension in 2020. Then he was extended his tenure for one year till November 18, 2021. Then in 2021, a day before the end of his term, he was again given a service extension. This was the second time. At the same time, even before the second service extension of Sanjay Kumar Mishra was over on November 17, 2022, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet had approved the third service extension for one year (from November 18, 2022 to November 18, 2023).
The government last year came out with an ordinance allowing the tenure of directors of the ED and CBI to be extended by three years after the mandatory two-year period.
Service expansion was challenged
Various petitions were filed challenging the extension of tenure of the Director of Enforcement Directorate. In this, his service extension was declared illegal.
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