ED Director Tenure: The Supreme Court will examine the decision to extend the tenure of Enforcement Directorate (ED) chief Sanjay Mishra. The top court sought a response from the Center and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on petitions challenging the extension of the tenure of the Enforcement Directorate chief. The matter will now be heard in the court after ten days.

The petitions filed in the Supreme Court have challenged the amended law, which allows the extension of the term of directors up to 5 years. A bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justice Krishna Murari issued notices to the respondents of the eight petitions. Congress leaders Randeep Singh Surjewala and Jaya Thakur and Trinamool Congress leader Saket Gokhale have also filed petitions. Advocate ML Sharma had filed the first petition on this matter. The petitions sought to declare the ordinance unconstitutional.

Earlier, in September 2021 itself, the Supreme Court had said that Sanjay Mishra would not get further extension, but in November, despite the orders of the Supreme Court, his term was extended for one more year. At the same time, petitioner lawyer Manohar Lal Sharma had said that this amendment ordinance was passed without debate in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. This is completely unconstitutional.

Let us tell you that Sanjay Kumar Mishra, Director of Enforcement Directorate is a 1984 batch Income Tax Department cadre officer of the Indian Revenue Service. On November 17, 2021, his term was extended by the central government till November 18, 2022. The central government had brought an ordinance for the appointment of ED and CBI directors to last for 5 years.