Petition Challenging Re-appointment of the ED Director

Common Cause has filed a PIL in the Supreme Court seeking a direction for the appointment of the Director, Enforcement Directorate (ED), in a fair and transparent manner and strictly in accordance with law as mandated by Section 25 of the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003.     

The writ petition has prayed for the quashing of the central government's order dated November 13, 2020, to retrospectively amend the tenure of Sanjay Kumar Mishra as ED Director. The order, extending the tenure of the Director, ED, is in violation of the CVC Act.

The petition states that a circuitous route has been employed to give the ED Director one more year in the same position, by way of retrospectively modifying the appointment order dated November 19, 2018. “Thus, what could not have been done directly under the Statute has been done indirectly,” it says.

Mishra was appointed as the Director on November 19, 2018, for a period of two years, which ended on November 18, 2020. An office order, dated November 13, 2020, modifies the order appointing him to the effect that the period of "two years" in the 2018 order shall be altered to a period of "three years". As of May 2020, he has reached the retirement age of 60 years, yet his tenure has been extended by a year in violation of the provisions of the CVC Act, 2003, the petition states. 

Click here for accessing the petition and orders.