Karnal Singh, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) director, who was due to retire in August this year, was on Tuesday given…
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Karnal Singh, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) director, who was due to retire in August this year, was on Tuesday given a fixed tenure of two years following a Supreme Court directive to issue a fresh notification and give him a fixed tenure in consonance with the provision of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) Act.
Singh, a 1984 batch IPS officer of the Union Territories cadre, was in October last year appointed as ED director till his superannuation.
Now, the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) as per a fresh official order has approved a two-year fixed tenure for him to be effective from 27 October 2016.
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The Supreme Court had recently directed the government to issue a fresh notification within a week on the appointment of Singh as ED Director for two years to make it complaint with the CVC Act.
While hearing a Public Interest Litigation in this regard, the apex court had said the fresh order would make it clear that Singh's appointment as ED chief would be for two years. The Supreme Court had noted that as per the appointment letter issued to Singh, he will cease to hold office the day he superannuates in August 2017 which was violative of Section 25(d) of the CVC Act which provides for a fixed tenure for the Enforcement Directorate chief of not less than two years.
The PIL, filed last year by Mumbai-based ex-IRS officer Uday Babu Khalwadekar, sought quashing of the “ad-hoc” appointment and subsequent extensions granted by the Centre to Singh in alleged violation of the law. Singh held additional charge of the post of ED chief since August 2015 till he was elevated as the director.
The ED, which is tasked with checking money laundering in India, has to enforce two key Acts of the government–the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, (FEMA) and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA).
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