The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to consider the listing of a plea challenging the Centre’s decision to grant one-year extension to Sanjay Kumar Mishra as director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli took note of the submission of a lawyer that he has filed the plea against the extension of tenure of the ED director by the Centre through an ordinance.
He referred to a verdict of September 8, last year in which the apex court had upheld the Centre’s power to extend Mishra’s tenure as ED director but had clarified that extension of officers after the age of superannuation should be done only in rare and exceptional cases.
The CJI asked the court official to take the number of the petition for considering its listing for a hearing.
The Centre on November 17, 2021, extended the tenure of Mishra by a year till November 18, 2022, days after the Centre brought ordinances to allow ED and CBI directors to occupy the office for up to five years. Mishra is a 1984-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer of the Income Tax Department cadre.
