New Delhi, July 26 (FN Bureau) Days after the Supreme Court ruled that the third extension given to Enforcement Directorate chief Sanjay Kumar Mishra was illegal, the centre has approached the court seeking an amendment of the July 31 deadline set by it for Mr Mishra’s removal. The central government has sought a modification of the order and asked that the deadline be extended. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the petition tomorrow. Mr Mishra was given charge of the Enforcement Directorate in November 2018. He was to retire two years later, after turning 60, but the government gave him an extension in November 2020. His term was extended twice after that, and the latest extension was till November this year. On July 11, the Supreme Court had termed the third extension given to Mr Mishra illegal and said that it violated a 2021 judgment of the court. However, it let him continue till July 31 after the centre expressed concern about continuity in the middle of a peer review by the global terror financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force.
The government was asked to appoint a new director of the probe agency. After the judgment, Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala, who had filed one of the petitions in the case, claimed it had become clear that the government is “misusing” agencies to destabilise elected governments in non-BJP-ruled states and target opposition leaders. “This is a victory of justice and vindication of our stand on brazen misuse and compromise of ED for political vendetta as also the blatant pursuit of Modi government’s desperate and obvious agenda,” Mr Surjewala had said on Twitter. “This is a serious and historic indictment of the Modi government, which was so desperate to have its choice of ED Chief (for reasons apparent to all) that it completely disregarded all norms of justice, equity and fairness to install its ‘yes man’,” he had alleged.