Govt extends tenure of ED director Sanjay Mishra for one more year

Mishra’s extended tenure – he originally retired in 2020 but has already got two extensions of one year each – was to end on Friday.

The Centre on Thursday extended the tenure of the Enforcement Directorate’s director Sanjay Kumar Mishra for another year, which officials described as a step to ensure continuity in the agency so that crucial money laundering cases can be taken to the logical end.

Sanjay Mishra was first appointed the ED director for a period of two years by an order on November 19, 2018. (PTI)

An order passed by the department of revenue stated that “the appointments committee of cabinet has approved the extension of Sanjay Kumar Mishra as Director of Enforcement in the ED for a period of one year beyond November 18, 2022, i.e. November 18, 2023 or until further orders, whichever is earlier”.

Mishra’s extended tenure – he originally retired in 2020 but has already got two extensions of one year each – was to end on Friday.

The government, in November 2021, brought in an ordinance to amend the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) act as well as the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act to give three one-year extensions to the ED chief and the CBI director if it so desires. This was subsequently passed by Parliament a month later.

Mishra was first appointed the ED director for a period of two years by an order on November 19, 2018. He was set to demit office in November, 2020, and in May that year, had reached the retirement age of 60.

However, through an office order on November 13, 2020, the appointment letter was modified retrospectively by the Union government and Mishra’s term of two years was made three years.

Under his tenure, several high profile persons accused of money laundering including former Yes Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Rana Kapoor, ICICI Bank former MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kochhar, Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar, AgustaWestland scam middleman Christian Michel James, alleged middlemen Sushen Mohan Gupta and Rajiv Saxena, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath’s nephew Ratul Puri and former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh were arrested.

The agency has also secured the extradition of fugitives Vijay Mallya, Sanjay Bhandari and Nirav Modi from London. These extraditions are pending due to different legal reasons.

The matter pertaining to the extension to the ED chief has been pending in the Supreme Court, where a bunch of petitions have opposed the extensions as well as amendments in the CVC and DSPE acts.

The government has argued in the SC that restricting the tenure of director of ED or CBI would be counterproductive to India’s concerted action against corruption and money laundering. It added in its affidavit filed in September this year that enough safeguards are in place, as any extension beyond two years is to be given on the grounds of larger public interest and for reasons recorded in writing by the committees appointing them.