In Supreme Court, Centre Defends Change In Probe Agency Chief's Tenure

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, questioned the locus of the petitioner NGO "Common Cause" on the issue in the Supreme Court.

The Centre today defended in the Supreme Court the decision on retrospective change in the 2018 appointment order of Sanjay Kumar Mishra as Director of Enforcement Directorate (ED) and said that there is a consistent trend to run a parallel administration by filing petitions by various organisations with regards to appointments. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, told a bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai that the committee headed by CVC met and took note of his tenure. He questioned the locus of the petitioner NGO "Common Cause" on the issue. "We cannot rule out the possibility of such PIL being filed by such vested interest. The Court's august forum may not be misused. These organisations exist as professional PIL filing organisations. This is the third Petition filed by the same organisation. This is a consistent trend to run a parallel administration," the Solicitor General argued.