New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday extended Enforcement Directorate director SK Mishra's term till September 15.
Mishra's term was to end on July 31 as per the July 11 judgment which held the previous extensions given to the officer illegal.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol partly allowed Centre's plea to extend Mishra's term in "larger public interest". But the bench added that no further extensions would be allowed to him.
The Centre cited Mishra's involvement in the review of India’s anti-money laundering mechanisms by the Financial Action Task Force(FATF), a global peer review body, for extension.
"In ordinary circumstances, we would not have accepted such an application having held that the extension granted to him was illegal. We allowed him to continue till July 31 to allow a smooth transition. Taking into consideration the larger public interest, we permit the ED director to continue for some more period.
"We add that no further application would be entertained for grant of extension. We also direct that the respondent will cease to be the director of ED with effect of midnight of 15th/16th September 2023," the bench ordered.
(With Live Law inputs)
