Mahua Mitra moves SC against Centre’s ordinances on powers to extend tenure of CBI, ED directors

Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court against two ordinances brought out by the Centre under which the tenure of directors of the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate can now be extended by up to three years after the mandated term of two years.

The All India Trinamool Congress leader stated that the ordinances are contrary to the apex court’s recent judgement.

”My petition just filed in Supreme Court challenging Union Ordinances on extension to CBI and ED director tenures being contrary to SC own judgements,” the tweet stated.

This is the second petition challenging the ordinance.

Advocate M L Sharma on Tuesday filed a similar petition alleging that the Central Vigilance Commission (Amendment) Ordinance and the Delhi Special Police Establishment (Amendment) Ordinance are unconstitutional, arbitrary and ultra-vires to the Constitution and urged their quashing.

As per the ordinances, the tenure of directors of the CBI and the ED can now be extended by up to three years after the mandated term of two years.

In both cases, an extension of a year each for three years can be given to the directors after clearance by the committees constituted for their appointments, according to the ordinances.

The apex court on September 8 had dismissed a plea challenging retrospective change in the 2018 appointment order of Sanjay Kumar Mishra as director of the ED, saying that a reasonable period of extension can be granted to facilitate completion of ongoing investigations.

The top court had made it clear, however, that extension of tenure of officers who have attained the age of superannuation should be done in rare and exceptional cases.

It had also made clear that no further extension can be given to Mishra as the ED director.