The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned till May 3
the hearing on pleas challenging the amended law allowing extension of up to
five years for the director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
A three-judge bench of Justices B R Gavai, Vikram
Nath and Sanjay Karol deferred the matter after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta
sought adjournment on grounds that he was busy in the constitution bench
hearing on the issue of legalisation of same-sex marriage.
"Mr Solicitor, you make some alternative
arrangements. We can't keep the matter adjourning like this. Make some
arrangements. We don't want any impression to be carried that the government is
unnecessarily delaying," the bench said.
Mehta submitted that nobody anticipated that constitution
bench matters would commence when this date was fixed.
On Solicitor General's request, the bench posted the
matter for hearing on May 3.
The top court had earlier disagreed with the
Centre's submission that petitions challenging the amended law allowing tenure
extension of the Enforcement Directorate director up to five years should not
be entertained as they have been filed by political entities facing serious
money laundering charges.
It had said even if the petitioners are facing
cases, they have the right to approach the judiciary for redressal of their
grievances.
The top court had on December 12 last sought the
response from the Centre and others to a plea challenging the third extension
granted to ED chief Sanjay Kumar Mishra.
It had issued notices to the Union of India, the
Central Vigilance Commission and the ED director on a plea filed by Jaya
Thakur.
The plea accused the central government of
destroying the basic structure of democracy by misusing enforcement agencies
against its political opponents.
A batch of petitions, including those filed by
Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala, TMC's Mahua Moitra and Saket Gokhale,
had come up for hearing before the bench.
According to an official order, the Union government
gave a fresh one-year extension to Mishra, the third for the Indian Revenue
Service officer, in the position.
The notification issued by the government said the
1984 batch IRS officer will be in office till November 18, 2023.
Mishra, 62, was first appointed the director of the
ED for two years on November 19, 2018. Later, by an order dated November 13,
2020, the central government modified the appointment letter retrospectively
and his two-year term was changed to three years.
The government promulgated an ordinance last year
under which the tenure of the ED and CBI chiefs could be extended by up to
three years after the mandated term of two years.