(file photo)

New Delhi:

A hearing was held in the Supreme Court on Thursday on the petition filed against the extension of the tenure of Enforcement Directorate Director Sanjay Mishra.

The Court remarked that it could only decide whether the subsequent extension was permissible or not.

The court is not concerned whether the petitioners belong to any particular party or not.

Right or wrong, we have already retained the extension.

There is no question of going back.

The Court said that the only issue was whether the subsequent extension was permissible.

Constitutional amendments have also been done.

At the same time, opposing the Centre's decision to extend the term, amicus curiae KV Vishwanathan again said that the extension should not be more than the original term as it would be better for democracy.

No government should be able to misuse this provision.

We have come to the sole conclusion that the notifications are illegal, purely as a matter of law and not malicious allegations. 

Let us inform that the next hearing in the matter will be held on April 20 and the central government will present its stand.

In the hearing held on Tuesday, on the petitions filed by political party leaders, the Supreme Court had said that it does not matter to us whether the petitioners are from BJP or Congress.

We will examine the preliminary aspects in this matter. 

With this, the hearing of the case was postponed in the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The court expressed displeasure over the absence of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and said, "While postponing the previous hearing, we had said that further hearing will not be postponed. Someone or the other should have appeared from the Center." 

Actually, ASG SV Raju, appearing on behalf of the Central Government, had demanded to postpone the hearing.

In the last hearing held on February 22, amicus curiae KV Vishwanathan told the court that such extension is illegal.

Quoting the Supreme Court judgments in Vineet Narayan etc., he said that the issue was not at all about the present director, but about the principle. 

However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed it on behalf of the Center.

It was said that Mishra's extension has been challenged by opposition leaders as he faces serious money laundering charges.

The petitioner has no locus. 

The bench, however, said that it was not concerned with this fact.

At the same time, the central government has justified the extension of tenure.

By filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court, it has been said that the petitioners are trying to save their leaders who are facing corruption investigation.

The real aim is to question the investigation being done against the party president and some Congress office bearers. 

The affidavit states that the petitioners include Randeep Singh Surjewala (Congress), Jaya Thakur (Congress), Saket Gokhale (TMC), Mahua Moitra (TMC).

Prominent leaders of these parties are under the scanner of ED.

The petition has been filed to ensure that the ED is not able to discharge its duties fearlessly.

The petitioners have also failed to disclose the serious matter of money laundering under investigation against several party leaders.

Read this also -


-- Country is indebted to Lal Bahadur Shastri for food self-sufficiency: Narendra Singh Tomar


-- Exclusive: Important revelations in intelligence agency's report on Amritpal Singh