SC adjourns petitions challenging extension of tenure of Sanjay Kumar Mishra as director of ED for tomorrow

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned for Tuesday, August 2, a hearing on various petitions challenging the extension of the tenure of Sanjay Kumar Mishra as director of the Enforcement Directorate.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said that it will hear tomorrow the plea. The court directed the registry to figure out the correct order of the filing of the petitions and said to list it tomorrow.
One of the petitioners and Advocate ML Sharma said that he had filed this petition last year and asked who will be the lead petitioner then, the one who filed it first or the one who filed it last.
Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan said that he has no issue with the order and said that due to such main issue gets derailed.
Among other petitioners are Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala and TMC leader Mahua Moitra.
The petition filed by social activist and General Secretary of the Madhya Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee Jaya Thakur has also sought quashing of order dated November 2021 passed by the Centre for further extension of tenure of Sanjay Kumar Mishra as director of the Enforcement Directorate. The petition was filed through Varinder Kumar Sharma and Varun Thakur.
"Presently Respondent No.1 (Centre) using the Enforcement Agencies against the Indian National Congress Party's president and their office bearer. The investigation is going on for the last ten years with an intention to damage the image and reputation of their opponent, " the plea said.
The petitioner said that the acts are against democratic features. "In the whole world, there are no agencies to search for upto 10 years. There is some litigation for the conclusion. There is no FIR. In fact, agencies called and investigate without the presence of his advocate. Therefore, the above-said act clearly shows that respondents misusing for political vendetta and harassing the opposition voice which is necessary in a democracy, " the petitioner said.
The petitioner added that ultimately, the Opposition's voice is the common man's voice. If they get harassed by misusing the agencies, then there is no opposition voice for the common man.
"Using the agencies and harassing the Opposition leaders is against democracy. In fact, Supreme Court also created the Special Court for speedy trial of the case related to the Public Representative, but for the last ten years, only investigation is going on without any accountability, damaging the image of the Opposition's party, which is an irreparable loss to the democratic structure, " the plea said.
The petitioner said that there are several competent officers who are eligible for consideration of appointment to the post of Director of Enforcement and they should not be deprived of the opportunity to be appointed in accordance with the procedure prescribed under the CVC Act.
"The nature of duties exercised by the Director of Enforcement would involve supervision of very important investigations. Under the guise of pendency of investigations into matters which have cross-border ramifications, the tenure of the Director of Enforcement cannot be extended periodically," the petitioner said.
Hence, the petitioner has sought the quashing of the order dated November 17, 2021 passed by the Respondent Centre for further extension of the tenure of Sanjay Kumar Mishra and to quash "The Central Vigilance Commission (Amendment) Act, 2021".
According to the petition, the Supreme Court on September 8, 2021, passed the specific order that no further extension shall be granted.
On September 8, 2021, the Supreme Court upheld the Central government's decision to retrospectively extend the tenure of Sanjay Kumar Mishra as the Director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) but said that no further extension be granted to him. (ANI)