ED Director gets extension: Who is Sanjay Kumar Mishra?

The Supreme Court on Thursday (July 27) granted an extension of tenure to Enforcement Directorate (ED) Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra till September 15.

The Centre was seeking an extension in Mishra’s tenure till October 15. A Bench of Justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol said it was granting the extension in “larger public and national interest” but that Mishra will cease to remain ED chief from midnight of September 15.

During the hearing, the top court questioned the Centre for seeking an extension and asked if the entire department is “full of incompetent people” except the incumbent chief.

Also read: ED’s rise, from a small unit in 1956 to the ruling party’s Brahmastra

“Are we not giving a picture that there is no other person and the entire department is full of incompetent people?” the bench told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre.

The top law officer argued that the continuity of the ED leadership is necessary in view of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) peer review whose rating matters.

Who is Sanjay Kumar Mishra?

Mishra is a 1984 batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer of the Income Tax cadre. He was the chief commissioner of the Income Tax Department in New Delhi. Also, he served in the Foreign Tax division of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

Also read: Enforcement Directorate raids up 26 times since 2014: Govt data

On October 27, 2018, Mishra was appointed the new chief of the Enforcement Directorate in an additional capacity. He was named as the Principal Special Director in the agency and was entrusted with the additional charge of ED Director for three months.

On November 19, 2018, Mishra took over as the full-time chief of ED, from his predecessor Karnal Singh. Mishra was appointed for a period of two years, the fixed term for the position. The ED director post has the additional secretary rank in the Union government.

Before his term was to end, on November 13, 2020, the Union government extended Mishra’s tenure by a year. The appointment letter was modified retrospectively by the Central government and his term of two years was replaced by three years.

Also read: SC upholds ED’s power to search, seize, arrest, attach properties under PMLA

Again, in November 2021, the Centre extended Mishra’s tenure till November 18, 2022. Further, the Union government gave one more extension to Mishra till November 2023.

According to an NDTV report, Mishra doesn’t “network” with politicians, and has a strong memory which helps him to move things fast.

“He goes after the corrupt with a thoroughly professional approach, addressing all loopholes in procedures, as any seasoned bureaucrat should. He doesn’t ‘network’ with politicians or leave any scope of an ‘understanding’, which is why he has been here all these years. He has a strong memory, so it helps to get things moving fast,” an official on the condition of anonymity, told the news channel.

Watch: GSTN brought under PMLA; move adds to ED’s powers

During his five-year tenure so far, Mishra has tightened scrutiny on many former ministers and powerful leaders, with the probe agency registering 4,000 cases, and conducting 3,000 searches, the report said.

Extension challenged in SC

The order of 2020 was challenged before the Supreme Court which upheld the extension order but the apex court said that no further extension can be given to Mishra.

However, the government later brought out two ordinances that said that the tenure of the Directors of the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) can now be extended by up to three years after the mandated term of two years.

The top court had on July 11, 2023 held as “illegal” two successive one-year extensions granted to Mishra and said the Centre’s orders were in the “breach” of its mandamus in the 2021 verdict that the IRS officer should not be given further term. It had also curtailed Mishra’s extended tenure to July 31 from November.

Also read: ‘Tax terrorism’: Non-BJP states slam move to allow ED access to info on GSTN

High-profile cases under Mishra’s watch

Under Mishra, ED has investigated several high-profile cases, with the agency’s scrutiny mainly on Opposition parties’ leaders. Due to this scrutiny, the Opposition parties have often accused the Narendra Modi-led BJP government of misusing central agencies against them.

Among the most high-profile cases being probed by ED under Mishra including the National Herald case where Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were questioned. Also, ED has launched investigations against senior Congress leader and former Union minister P Chidambaram, his son and MP Karthi Chidambaram (INX Media case), Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, TMC leader Partha Chatterjee (SSC recruitment scam), AAP leader Satyendar Jain (money laundering case), Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut (Patra Chawl scam), NCP leader Nawab Malik (alleged links to Dawood Ibrahim), Farooq Abdullah (Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association Fund scam), Washington Post columnist Rana Ayyub (money laundering case linked to PM CARES), Tamil Nadu DMK minister Senthil Balaji.

The Federal Explainer: A step-by-step explanation of the National Herald case

Last year, in the National Herald case, Rahul Gandhi was questioned by ED for more than 50 hours over five days. Rahul’s brother-in-law Robert Vadra in connection with a money laundering probe case relating to alleged possession of illegal foreign assets.

ED, under Mishra, also probed and transferred attached assets worth more than Rs 19,000 crore to Public Sector Banks that suffered losses due to the bank fraud by businessmen Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.

ED’s role

ED is a multi-disciplinary organisation mandated with the investigation of the offence of money laundering and violations of foreign exchange laws. Presently, it is under the administrative control of the Revenue Department in the Union Ministry of Finance.

The statutory functions of the Directorate include the enforcement of the following Acts:

• The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA)
• The Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA)
• The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 (FEOA)
• The Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973 (FERA)
• Sponsoring agency under COFEPOSA (The Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974)

(With agency inputs)