The latest extension granted to Enforcement Directorate chief Sanjay Kumar Mishra has been challenged in the Supreme Court on the ground that it violates an apex court directive not to grant him further extensions and also flouts an office memorandum.

Mishra, who retired as ED director in 2020, continues to be in office on extension at a time the central agency has been in the public eye for its sustained raids on critics of the Narendra Modi government.

Trinamul spokesperson Saket Gokhale has now challenged his latest one-year extension, beginning from November 18 last year.

On September 8 last year, the bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and B.R. Gavai had upheld the previous extension granted to Mishra in November 2020 but added: “We make it clear that no further extension shall be granted to the second respondent (Mishra).”

Mishra’s latest extension, however, went largely under the radar before Gokhale’s petition brought it under the spotlight on Wednesday.

Gokhale’s petition argues that the grant of extension to Mishra also falls foul of an office memorandum — OM No. 11012/11/2007 dated 27/09/2021 — issued by the Union department of personnel and training.

The memo says that “vigilance clearance shall be denied to an officer if he fails to submit his annual immovable property return of the previous year by 31st January of the following year, as required under Government of India decisions under Rule 18 of the Central Civil Services (conduct rules) 1964”.

The petition says Mishra had on November 17 last year, the day his last extension order was issued, not uploaded his annual immovable property returns (IPR) for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 as well as 2013 and 2014.

“This office order required all civil servants to file their IPRs and to initiation (of) disciplinary proceedings against officers in case of non-filing of IPRs on time,” the petition says.

“In such circumstances, it is all the more surprising that the officer in question has been granted extension of tenure… when on the contrary he is liable to be proceeded against by way of departmental enquiry for his failure to comply (with) the said office order.”

The government decision “is bound to create a perception that such an important and sensitive position is open to political influence”, the petition says.

The apex court’s September 8, 2021, order came on a petition from the NGO Common Cause seeking quashing of the earlier extension granted to Mishra in November 2020.

The court accepted the government’s submission that important ED investigations were at a crucial stage and needed Mishra’s stewardship, but made it clear that Mishra could not be given a further extension.

It stressed that ED officials could be given extensions of service only in “rare and exceptional cases” and to “facilitate the completion of ongoing investigations”.