Opposition slams tenure extension of CBI, ED chiefs
The government on Sunday controversially brought two ordinances to extend the tenures of the chiefs of the CBI and the ED up to five years, a move seen as rewarding those chiefs who make the government happy by working as per its wishes.
In a controversial move, the Narendra Modi government on Sunday, through two ordinances, extended the tenures of the heads of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) up to five years.
The normal tenure for the directors of these two Central investigative agencies is two years, which could, till now, be extended by one more year conventionally. The ordinances virtually allow these two bureaucrats tenures of five years—if the government is happy with them.
Significantly, the government had retrospectively extended the two-year tenure of Sanjay Kumar Mishra as the director of the ED in 2020, and he was to retire on November 17.
The NGO Common Cause, represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, had challenged the retrospective extension in the Supreme Court (SC), which on September 8 ruled that Mishra should not be given any further extension.
Several major opposition parties have, naturally, protested the move. Coming just two weeks ahead of the winter session of Parliament, set to begin from November 29, Congress’ Rajya Sabha member Abhishek Singhvi said: “Ordinance Raj, the favourite route of the Modi govt, bypasses Parliament scrutiny 14 days before Parliament meets.”
To this tweet, he added, as a reminder to the government, that “[f]resh new appointments not extensions under new Parliament Act not Ordinance should have been done”.
“Modi-Shah care two hoots about #Parliament (session starting in two weeks). They promised India the ‘Gujarat Model’ … boy, are we getting there,” Trinamool Congress’s Derek O’Brien said.
Sitaram Yechury, the CPI(M) general secretary, dubbed the move as “fishy”: “Parliament session begins on 29th. To avoid its scrutiny, Centre on Sunday promulgates ordinances to extend the tenure of Directors of CBI and ED. This desperate hurry smacks of something fishy.”
