The Madhya Pradesh Mahila Congress general secretary, Jaya Thakur, has filed a plea in the Supreme Court challenging the extension of tenure to Enforcement Directorate Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra.
The interrogation of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case by the ED has led to the filing of the plea.
The petition clearly states that the probe is based even on absence of any FIR, still the case is been dragged for more than 10 years now.
“The above acts are against the democratic features. In the whole world there are no agencies to (sic) search upto 10 years,” the petition stated.
The petitioner said the extension of the ED director is a gross violation of Supreme Court’s 2021 decision (Common Cause vs. Union of India) where the top court had explicitly ruled against further extensions to Mishra.
As per the records, Mishra was due to retire in November 2020, but it was extended twice subsequently. It was by an act of Parliament (Central Vigilance Commission Act) that in November 2021, the tenure was increased last time.
The plea states that such acts of granting extension by the Central government has destroyed the basic structure of the Constitution by such leeway.
The petition alleged that the Enforcement Directorate is been used as a tool against the Indian National Congress president and their office-bearers to damage their image and reputation.
The petitioner sought quashing the extension orders granted to the incumbent ED Director as well the 2021 Act paving way for the same.
The petition has been drafted by advocate Varun Thakur and filed by advocate Varinder Kumar Sharma.
In September 2021 , the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Central government for making retrospective changes to the appointment order of Sanjay Kumar Mishra, making it from two years to three years.
The then bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and B.R. Gavai had stated that all though the Central Government has the power to make changes, it should be done in the rarest of the rare cases.
It is extremely important to note that the top court had clarified that any extension of tenure granted to persons holding the post of Director of Enforcement after attaining the age of superannuation should be for a short period.
The court also mentioned that reasonable extension should be granted to facilitate the completion of ongoing investigations only after reasons are recorded by the Committee constituted under Section 25 (a) of the CVC Act, the Supreme Court had underscored.
The President of India promulgated ordinances that enabled the increase in tenure of the Directors of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) by upto 5 years.