After the Supreme Court's rebuke, the Appointments Committee on Cabinet (ACC) on Tuesday issued orders for the two-year fixed term for Enforcement Directorate (ED) chief Karnal Singh. Centre faced the apex court's ire, when it violated the CVC norms by giving Singh a tenure only till his superannuation, August 2017. As per the new order, Singh will be ED chief till October 2018.
Singh is a 1984 batch IPS officer from UT cadre. He served in various posts in Delhi Police and in ED as Special Director and was holding additional charge of Director from August 2015. He was appointed as full-time Director in October 2016, when a PIl was filed in the Court against non-appointment of full-time Director. As per CVC Act, the CBI and ED chiefs are mandated to be posted for a two-year fixed tenure.
The PIl, filed last year by Mumbai-based former IRS officer Uday Babu Khalwadekar, has sought quashing of the "ad-hoc" appointment and subsequent extensions granted by the Centre to Singh as head of premier anti-money laundering investigation agency in alleged violation of the law. Singh held the additional charge of the post of ED chief since August 2015 till the time he was elevated as the Director.
The agency has a mandate to enforce two of the most stringent laws in the country--Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMlA) and Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA)--to check black money and hawala transactions. After Singh took charge as additional charge of Director, ED has initiated series of high profile cases like Agusta Westland scam, registering money laundering cases against fugitives Vijay Mallya and lalit Modi. Several properties were attached by ED under PMlA after Singh took charge.