The Centre defended the third extension of service given to Sanjay Kumar Mishra, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) chief, in the Supreme Court on Monday. The Solicitor General argued that Mishra’s extension was due to a peer review being conducted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) this year and that he will retire in November. The FATF is a global anti-money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog. It sets international standards that aim to prevent these illegal activities and the harm they cause to society. The bench reserved its verdict on a batch of pleas challenging Mishra’s third extension and the amendment carried out in law extending the maximum tenure of the ED director to five years.
The Solicitor General argued that Mishra was overseeing important investigations related to money laundering and his continuity was required in the interest of the nation. He added that peer review was earlier scheduled to be held in 2019 but was postponed due to the COVID pandemic and is happening in 2023. The current mutual evaluation process has already begun, and India is being assessed in the fourth round of mutual evaluation. The bench asked if it was a case that minus one person, the Enforcement Directorate would be ineffective. The Solicitor General replied in the negative but said leadership does matter.
Senior advocates, including KV Viswanathan and Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who appeared for the petitioners, argued that the amendments carried out in the law were illegal, and the extensions given to Mishra were also illegal. They further stated that the ED needed to be sacrosanct and independent of the government in power.
On May 3, the top court questioned the third extension of service given to Mishra despite its express direction that no further extension shall be granted to him. It had categorically held in its 2021 judgment that any extension of tenure granted to officers holding the post of Director of Enforcement after attaining the age of superannuation should be for a short period and mentioned that no further extension would be given to Mishra.
