{"id":343611,"date":"2023-05-16T03:13:18","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T08:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=343611"},"modified":"2023-05-16T03:14:42","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T08:44:42","slug":"third-extension-to-ed-chief-puts-agencys-credibility-at-stake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/third-extension-to-ed-chief-puts-agencys-credibility-at-stake\/","title":{"rendered":"Third extension to ED chief puts agency\u2019s credibility at stake?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Reacting to the government granting a third extension to ED chief, the Apex Court observed, \u2018Is there no other person in the organisation who can do his job? Can one person be so indispensable?\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a famous saying that “Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion”, meaning thereby that if one is involved with a famous or prominent figure or institution, one must avoid attracting negative attention or scrutiny. Caesar divorced his wife Pompeia, saying that “my wife ought not even to be under suspicion”. The recent Supreme Court observations pulling up the government for granting a third extension to Enforcement Directorate (ED) chief has created such a piquant situation. The Apex Court has observed, \u2018Is there no other person in the organisation who can do his job? Can one person be so indispensable?\u2019

The Centre claims that the extension was necessitated by administrative reasons and was vital for India\u2019s evaluation by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).  The barrage of questions from the bench came after the Solicitor General said Mishra\u2019s extension was necessitated because of administrative reasons and was vital for India\u2019s evaluation by the Financial Action Task Force. \u201cThe next peer review of India\u2019s legislation on money laundering is to take place in 2023 and, with a view to ensuring that India\u2019s rating does not go down, continuity of the leadership in the Enforcement Directorate is crucial,\u201d Mehta said, adding the person already interacting with the task force is best suited to deal with it and the skills for that is acquired after working in that position for several years.

The SG said though no one was indispensable, in such cases continuity was required. \u201cWe are not dealing with individuals, but with the performance of an entire country,\u201d he contended. It may be noted that the Apex court had stated in its 2021 judgment that any extension of tenure granted to officers holding the post of ED Director after attaining the age of superannuation should be for a short period and that no further extension should be given to the incumbent director.

Opposition parties have been accusing the Centre of misusing the ED \u2014 the country\u2019s premier agency that investigates cases of money laundering and violation of foreign exchange laws \u2014 to settle political scores. Congress and TMC leaders are among the petitioners who have challenged the amended law that allowed extension to the ED chief, even as the Supreme Court had issued notices to the Centre and the directorate a month ago on a petition challenging the \u2018unfettered\u2019 powers the ED wields under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act for search, seizure, summons and arrest.

The Supreme Court questioned, \u201cIs there no other person in the organisation who can do his job? Can one person be so indispensable?,\u201d asked the bench. \u201cAccording to you, there is no one else in ED who is competent? What will happen post-2023, when he does retire?\u201d a bench of Justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represented the Centre.

At the start of the arguments, the solicitor general questioned the locus standi of some of the PIL petitioners who have challenged the amended law that allowed extension to the ED boss.  \u201cAt the outset, I have serious objection with respect to petitions filed by political persons whose party\u2019s senior functionaries are under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate. They have no locus in the matter. Their leaders are facing serious ED investigations and it is not just political investigation as alleged. In one of the cases, we had to bring a cash counting machine because there was so much cash recovered from them…Will this court entertain petitions at the behest of persons who are trying to pressurise the agency ED,\u201d Mehta said. The apex court, however, refused to agree with Mehta\u2019s submission.

\u201cMerely because a person is a member of a political party, can that be grounds not to permit him a petition? Can he be stalled from approaching the court?,\u201d the Bench asked.  A batch of petitions, including those filed by Congress leaders Randeep Singh Surjewala and Jaya Thakur, and TMC\u2019s Mahua Moitra and Saket Gokhale, had come up for hearing before the bench.

Earlier extensions to ED chief<\/strong>

According to the latest extension notification issued by the government, the 1984 batch IRS officer will be in office till November 18, 2023.  The present ED chief was first appointed the director of the ED for two years on November 19, 2018. Later, by an order dated November 13, 2020, the central government modified the appointment letter retrospectively and his two-year term was changed to three years. The Government promulgated an ordinance last year and later passed law, under which the tenure of the ED and CBI chiefs could be extended by up to three years after the mandated term of two years.

The Supreme Court said it might revisit its 2021 ruling that the tenure of a superannuated officer may be extended only in exceptional circumstances. On September 8, 2021, a Bench of Justices B R Gavai and L Nageswara Rao upheld the Centre\u2019s order extending the tenure of Mishra beyond two years. However, the Bench said that \u201cextension of tenure\u2026to officers who have attained the age of superannuation should be done only in rare and exceptional cases\u201d, and that such extensions \u201cshould be for a short period\u201d. The court said, \u201cThere is no fetter on the power of the Central Government in appointing the Director of Enforcement beyond a period of two years\u201d. On Section 25(d) of the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003, which lays down the minimum tenure of an ED Director, the SC said, \u201cThe words \u2018not less than two years\u2019 cannot be read to mean \u2018not more than two years\u2019.\u201d

Mishra will complete five years as ED chief in November. The Centre has submitted that the extension was given due to a pending review by the Financial Action Task Force, the global terror funding watchdog, and that \u201ccontinuity would help\u201d the country. It has also said that Mishra would not remain in service after his term comes to an end in November. So far so good but observations by the top Court will certainly put onus on the government and the probe agency Enforcement Directorate to establish that its credentials are above board.

 

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Reacting to the government granting a third extension to ED chief, the Apex Court observed, \u2018Is there no other person in the organisation who can do his job? Can one person be so indispensable?\u2019 There is a famous saying that “Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion”, meaning thereby that if one is involved with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":343612,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,2205],"tags":[16721,16720],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343611"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343611"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":343615,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343611\/revisions\/343615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/343612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}