Congress General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala on Tuesday, July 12, hailed the Supreme Court judgement striking down extensions given to ED Director SK Mishra as illegal, terming it a victory of justice and vindication of their stand on brazen misuse and compromise of the financial probe agency for political vendetta. He also demanded that an independent investigation be constituted to scrutinise all actions by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) post-November 17, 2021.
Surjewala said, "On a Petition instituted by me, the Supreme Court today pronounced its judgment striking down the extensions given to the ED Chief as illegal. ED Director will have to vacate office by the end of the month. This is a victory of justice and vindication of our stand on brazen misuse and compromise of ED for political vendetta as also blatant pursuit of Modi government’s desperate and obvious agenda."
"The Supreme Court has made it clear in para 119. '...we have held that orders dated 17th November 2021and 17th November 2022 granting extensions to respondent No.2 are not valid in law'. This is a serious and historic indictment of the Modi government, which was so desperate to have its choice of ED Chief (for reasons apparent to all) that it completely disregarded all norms of justice, equity and fairness to install its ‘yes man’,” Surejwala said.
"But even more significantly, in view of the said observation of the SC, all actions taken by ED after November 17, 2021 automatically become illegal, null and void," he added.
"Thus, we demand that an independent investigation (independent of influence and pressure of Modi government) be constituted to scrutinise all actions by ED post November 17, 2021. The ED, which has already faced devastating allegations to its credibility, must reject the interference of the Modi government or risk its legacy being permanently tarnished and demolished beyond retrieval," the Congress Rajya Sabha member said.
"Finally, the Government must apologise for open and unabashed misuse of the office of Director of ED to fulfill its malicious political objectives and to try muzzle the opposition. We had hoped that the SC would strike down the law which allows such abuses of the process to take place, but for now the SC has let it stand. Nonetheless, we will continue to expose, challenge, and fight to the fullest all such attempts as the Modi government may launch to try and undermine our democracy and our institutions," he added.
His remarks came after the top court on Tuesday dubbed the extension of Enforcement Directorate chief Mishra as "illegal" for violating the mandate of the top court's judgment in 2021. The Court, however, allowed him to continue in the post till July 31 taking into consideration the concerns expressed by the Union government. The term of the ED director was set to end in November 2023.