On July 11, a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court ruled that the extensions granted to Sanjay Kumar Mishra, Director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), since November 2021 were illegal, and asked the Centre to appoint a new chief by July 31. Within two weeks, the same Bench, in a special hearing on July 27, extended the tenure of Mr. Mishra till September 15, citing “public and national interest”, while partially allowing the Centre’s plea for his continuation till October 15.
That the Government of India had to move a special application citing “extraordinary and unusual” circumstances to allow his continuation at the anti-graft agency shows the importance Mr. Mishra, a 1984-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, has acquired in the present administration. He is only the second bureaucrat for whom this government brought an Ordinance to keep him in the position. The first was former Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Nripendra Misra.
Mr. Sanjay Kumar Mishra was first appointed interim Director of the ED for three months in October 2018 before he was made the full-time chief in November 2018 for a two-year fixed tenure. In November 2020, when his tenure was coming to an end, the Union government quietly extended it with retrospective effect, making it a three-year tenure against the initial two years, though Mr. Mishra had attained superannuation in the interregnum. This was challenged before the Supreme Court, which ruled in 2021 that there should not be any further extension to him, which prompted the Centre to bring in an Ordinance for his continuation at the post.
