The Supreme Court on Thursday extended the tenure of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra till September 15 in view of the ongoing FATF review, while making it clear that no application for any further extension would be entertained and he will cease to be the ED Director from midnight of September 15-16.

Extending the tenure of Sanjay Kumar Mishra till September 15, a bench of justice B.R. Gavai, Justice Vikran Nath and Justice Sanjay Karol wondered if running the affairs of ED was a one man show and nothing would move without him.

The bench observed that the plea seeking the extension of tenure to ED Director Mishra gives an impression that your entire department is incompetent and there is only one competent person and the department cannot function without one person.

“Is it not demoralising to the entire department that it cannot work if one person is not there”, Justice Gavai asked the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

“If one person is not there, will the entire department collapse?”, the bench asked.

The bench said that under ordinary circumstances, after having held that two extensions granted to Mishra were illegal, they would not have entertained an application for further extension.

Granting Mishra extension till September 15, considering the “larger public interest”, the bench said that even after holding that two-extensions given to him were illegal, yet he was allowed to continue till July 31 to facilitate smooth transition.

Making it clear that no further application would be entertained for grant of extension, the bench ordered “We also direct that the respondent (Sanjay Mishra) will cease to be the Director with effect from the midnight of September 15-16, 2023.”

The Centre on Wednesday (July 26) in an application had sought extension of tenure to Mishra till October 15, in view of the ongoing Financial Action Task Force (FATF) review which, it said, was at a critical stage.

The Centre had approached the top court for extension of tenure to Mishra in view of the top court’s July 11 judgment ruling that two extensions of tenure of one year each to Sanjay Kumar Mishra were illegal.

However, despite holding that two extensions of tenure to Sanjay Mishra were illegal, the top court had permitted him to continue as ED Director till July 31, in view of the ongoing FATF review.

Justice B.R. Gavai heading the bench, also comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sanjay Karol, had pronounced the judgment on July 11, 2023.

The Centre in its application seeking permission to extend the tenure of Sanjay Kumar Mishra beyond July 31, upto October 15 had said that FATF review which is at a critical stage where submissions on effectiveness have been made on July 21 2023 and an on-site visit is scheduled to be conducted in November 2023.

“At such a critical juncture, it is essential to have an individual who is well-acquainted with the overall status of money laundering investigations and proceedings across the country and also the intricacies of the procedures, operations and activities of the investigating agency, at the helm of affairs at the Directorate of Enforcement. This is necessary to ensure that the assessment team can be promptly and ably assisted with necessary reports, information, statistics etc,” the Centre had said in its application seeking top court nod for giving two-and-a-half-month extension (August, September and 15 days of October) to Sanjay Mishra.