Senior Advocate KV Viswanathan appointed Amicus Curiae in plea challenging tenure extension of ED Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra

The Supreme Court on Monday appointed Senior Advocate KV Vishanathan as amicus curiae in the batch of pleas challenging the validity of the extension given to the tenure of the present Director of Enforcement Directorate (ED), Sanjay Kumar Mishra [Dr Jaya Thakur and ors vs Union of India and ors]..A Bench of Chief Justice of India Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice S Ravindra Bhat listed the matter for September 12 after noting Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta's submission that the Central government's reply would be served on the parties today."Considering the issues raised, we appoint Senior Advocate KV Vishwanathan as amicus curiae to assist us in this case. The amicus shall be assisted by an AoR [advocate-on-record]. The AoR shall make a concise statement regarding submission by various parties and include relevant documents," the Court directed..The Supreme Court had last month sought the response of the Central government on a batch of pleas challenging the decision of the Central government to grant extension of tenure to Mishra.The Court was hearing at least 8 petitions filed by Congress and TMC leaders and others including Dr Jaya Thakur, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Saket Gokhale, Mahua Moitra challenging the tenure extension.Krishna Chander Singh, Vineet Narain and Manoharlal Sharma are the other petitioners.The petitioners have contended that the Central government's decision to extend Mishra's tenure was in violation of top court's September 2021 verdict which ruled against more extensions to Mishra.In that verdict, the Supreme Court had affirmed an earlier judgement of the Central government dated November 13, 2020, which made retrospective revisions to Mishra's appointment order, increasing his term from two to three years.Mishra was first appointed as the ED Director for a two-year term in November 2018. The two-year term expired in November 2020. In May 2020, he had reached the retirement age of 60.However, on November 13, 2020, the Central Government issued an office order stating that the President had modified the 2018 order to the effect that a time of 'two years' was changed to a period of 'three years.' This was challenged at the Supreme Court by the NGO Common Cause.A Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai had held in September 2021 that the Central government has powers to make retrospective changes but it should be done only in the rarest of rare cases.The Court had also said that the tenure of Mishra, which was set to expire, cannot be extended further.After the Supreme Court's decision last year, the Central government brought in an ordinance amending the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) Act, empowering itself to extend the tenure of the ED Director up to five years. This has now been challenged before the top court..At today's hearing SG Tushar Mehta submitted that barring one, all the other pleas were a pressure tactic by politicians." ... all PILs here are from political leaders and from those parties whose members are being currently investigated by the ED, and thus this is not a bonafide PIL but is a pressure tactic," he said. .[Follow our coverage of today's hearing]