The court, however, has allowed him to continue till July 31.

The Supreme Court Tuesday held the third extension of service granted to Director of Enforcement Directorate Sanjay Kumar Mishra as invalid. The court, however, has allowed him to continue till July 31.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol said in view of the peer review being conducted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) this year and to enable smooth transition, Mishra’s tenure will be till July 31.

Hearing a batch of petitions challenging the third extension given to Mishra, the Supreme Court had in May said it might revisit its 2021 ruling that the tenure of a superannuated officer may be extended only in exceptional circumstances.

The top court had on December 12 last year sought a response from the Centre and others to a plea challenging the third extension granted to Mishra.

The Centre had given another one-year extension to Sanjay Kumar Mishra in November last year, a day before he was set to retire. This was the third extension in the tenure of Mishra, who was to be in office till November 18, 2023, with a total tenure as ED chief lasting five years.

Mishra was appointed ED Director on November 19, 2018, for a fixed period of two years. Days before his tenure was to end, the President on November 13, 2020, modified the previous order retrospectively and changed Mishra’s tenure to three years.

On September 8, 2021, a Bench of Justices B R Gavai and L Nageswara Rao upheld the Centre’s order extending the tenure of Mishra beyond two years. However, the Bench said that “extension of tenure…to officers who have attained the age of superannuation should be done only in rare and exceptional cases”, and that such extensions “should be for a short period”.

The court said “there is no fetter on the power of the Central Government in appointing the Director of Enforcement beyond a period of two years”. On Section 25(d) of the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003, which lays down the minimum tenure of an ED Director, the SC said, “The words ‘not less than two years’ cannot be read to mean ‘not more than two years’.”

The Centre had said that the extension was given due to a pending review by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global terror funding watchdog, and that “continuity would help” the country. It has also said that Mishra would not remain in service after his term comes to an end in November.