Sanjay Kumar Mishra. File.
The Supreme Court on May 3 quizzed the federal government in regards to the third extension given to Enforcement Directorate (ED) chief Sanjay Kumar Mishra, asking whether “one person can be so indispensable”.
“Is there no other person in the organisation who can do his job? Can one person be so indispensable? Is there no one else in ED who is competent? What will happen post 2023, when he does retire?” a three-judge Bench headed by Justice B.R. Gavai requested the Centre.
At one level, the court docket remarked that the nation had gone on regardless of the assassination of a Prime Minister years in the past.
The apex court docket had categorically directed the federal government to not give any additional extension to Mr. Mishra in a judgment in September 2021.
However, the federal government, inside two months of the judgment, made amendments within the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) Act by means of promulgation of an ordinance in November 2021. These amendments had paved the best way for the federal government to stretch Mr. Mishra’s tenure by a 12 months until November 2022. On the energy of those adjustments, the federal government had once more given the 1984-batch Indian Revenue Service officer his third extension in November 2022. He is anticipated to proceed until November 18, 2023.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for the federal government, stated Mr. Mishra’s extension was very important for India’s analysis by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
“The next peer review of India’s legislation on money laundering is to take place in 2023 and, with a view to ensuring that India’s rating does not go down, continuity of the leadership in the Enforcement Directorate is crucial…We are not dealing with individuals, but with the performance of an entire country,” he contended.
Mr. Mehta questioned the locus standi of the petitioners within the case.
The petitions filed by Congress celebration spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, Trinamool Congress chief Mahua Moitra, social activist and common secretary of Madhya Pradesh Congress Mahila Committee Jaya Thakur have argued that the “piecemeal” extensions have an effect on “institutional independence”.
Mr. Mehta stated the petitioners belonged to political events whose leaders had been dealing with severe costs.
But the court docket requested whether individuals might be stopped from submitting petitions for the only real motive that they belong to political events. It listed the case for additional arguments on May 8.
