Congress leader Jaya Thakur moves Supreme Court against tenure extension of ED Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra

Madhya Pradesh Congress leader Dr. Jaya Thakur has moved the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the Central government to grant extension of tenure to the current Director of Enforcement Directorate (ED) Sanjay Kumar Mishra..The plea was mentioned before a Bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli, which agreed to list the case. .The plea contended that the Central government's decision to extend Mishra's tenure was in violation of top court's September 2021 verdict which ruled against more extensions to Mishra.The apex court had in that verdict upheld an earlier decision of the Central government dated November 13, 2020, which had made retrospective changes to the appointment order of Mishra by which his tenure was increased from two years to three years.Mishra was initially appointed as the ED Director in November 2018 for a period of two years. The said two-year tenure ended in November 2020. He had already reached the retirement age of 60 years in May 2020.However, the Central government on November 13, 2020 issued an office order in which it was stated that the President has modified the 2018 order to the effect that a period of ‘two years’ was modified to a period of ‘three years’. This was challenged by NGO Common Cause before the top court.The Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai held in September 2021 that the Central government has powers to make retrospective changes but it should be done only in the rarest of rare cases.Pertinently, the Court had also said that tenure of Sanjay Kumar Mishra which was set to expire, cannot be extended further..After the Supreme Court's decision last year, the Central government had brought in an ordinance amending the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) Act, empowering itself to extend the tenure of the ED Director up to five years. .This has now been challenged by Thakur in the plea filed through advocate Varun Thakur.In April this year, activist and national spokesperson of the All India Trinamool Congress Saket Gokhale had also moved the Supreme Court against the same. In his public interest litigation petition (PIL), Gokhale claimed that the extension was invalid under Section 25 of the CVC Act and in gross violation of the judgement in Common Cause v Union of India where it was held that no further extension of tenure shall be granted to the incumbent Director of the ED. That plea is pending before the Court. .The plea is likely to be listed this week or next week as per the Chief Justice of India. .Read more about that petition here..[Read our live coverage of the hearing here]