Shah warns ‘cozy club of dynasts’ after SC ruling on ED chief tenure

Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday launched a veiled attack on the opposition leaders for “rejoicing” over the Supreme Court judgment on the repeated extensions of Enforcement Directorate (ED) chief Sanjay Kumar Mishra’s tenure, saying they are being “delusional for various reasons”.

Shah pointed out that the top court has upheld the amendments to the Central Vigilance Commission (Amendment) Act, 2021 by which the government can give a maximum of five-year tenure to CBI and ED chiefs.

He said the “powers of the ED to strike at those who are corrupt and on the wrong side of the law remain the same.”

The minister asserted that the central probe agency “rises beyond any one individual and is focused on achieving its core objective” of investigating offences of money laundering and violations of foreign exchange laws.

“Thus, who the ED director is – that is not important because whoever assumes this role will take note of the rampant corruption of a cozy club of entitled dynasts who have an anti-development mindset,” he said in a tweet.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday held as “illegal” two notifications by the Centre granting an extension of service, for one year each time, to Indian Revenue Service officer Sanjay Kumar Mishra as the chief of the Enforcement Directorate. A three-judge bench, headed by Justice BR Gavai, held that Mishra could not have been granted the extension beyond November 2022 in view of a previous order of the Supreme Court in 2021.

However, the top court upheld the amendments made to the Central Vigilance Commission (Amendment) Act, 2021 and the Delhi Special Police Establishment (Amendment) Act, 2021 as well as to the Fundamental (Amendment) Rules, 2021 by which the government can give a maximum of five-year tenure to CBI and ED chiefs.

Opposition hails the decision

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, one of the petitioners in the case, thanked Supreme Court for ruling Mishra’s extension as invalid.

“BJP – we shall fight you in the polls, we shall fight you in the courts. we shall fight in the fields & in the streets, we shall never surrender,” she tweeted.

Congress general secretary K C Venugopal said his party has maintained from the beginning that the extension of tenure of the ED director is “totally illegal”.

“The Congress party’s stand has been vindicated. The government has been exposed today,” he said.