Supreme Court judge Justice SK Kaul on Friday recused himself from hearing a batch of petitions challenging the Centre’s order to extend the tenure of Enforcement Directorate chief Sanjay Kumar Mishra by one year in November 2021, reported Live Law.

The matter will now be listed before another bench.

Mishra was first appointed as director of the central agency in November 2018 for a period of two years.

In 2020, the Centre modified the 2018 order to increase the tenure of the director from two to three years. The decision had been taken just three days after the government introduced two ordinances in November last year which allowed the extension of the tenures of the directors of the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate to up to five years.

Mishra got another extension of one year on Thursday. Opposition leaders, including Jaya Thakur, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Mahua Moitra and Saket Gokhale, have filed at least eight petitions in the Supreme Court against Mishra’s extension in 2021.

At Friday’s hearing, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for one of the petitioners, sought an early listing of the pleas in view of the extension given to Kaul on Thursday.

Justice Kaul, however, said that he cannot direct for an early listing.

“Since the counsel expressed some urgency, the matter be placed before the CJI for necessary orders”, the bench, which also comprised Justice AS Oka, said in its order.

On September 22, the Centre had told the Supreme Court that the pleas challenging Mishra’s extension were politically motivated as they have been filed by members of the Congress or Trinamool Congress, whose leaders are being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate.

Under Mishra’s tenure, the Enforcement Directorate has launched investigations against several Opposition leaders such as Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, Trinamool Congress’ Abhishek Banerjee, Nationalist Congress Party leaders Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar, Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik, National Conference leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, among others.