Is Entire Dept Full Of Incompetent People, SC Asks Centre, Allows Sanjay Mishra To Continue As ED Chief Till September 15

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday came down heavily on the Centre for seeking an extension in the tenure of Enforcement Directorate (ED) chief Sanjay Kumar Mishra till October 15, and asked if the entire department is "full of incompetent people" except the incumbent chief. "Are we not giving a picture that there is no other person and the entire department is full of incompetent people?" a bench headed by Justice B R Gavai told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

The top law officer argued before the bench, also comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol, that the continuity of the ED leadership is necessary in view of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) peer review whose rating matters. Mehta said Sanjay Mishra is "not indispensable" but his presence is necessary for the entire peer review exercise.

Representing the ED, Additional Solicitor General S V Raju said, "Some neighbouring countries want India to fall into FATF's 'grey list' and therefore, the ED chief's continuity is necessary".

The hearing on the Centre's application seeking the continuance of Mishra's tenure till October 15 is underway. The top court had on July 11 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.

Who Is Sanjay Kumar Mishra

 

Sanjay Kumar Mishra is a 1984-batch IRS officer. If the SC order had not come, the 62-year-old IRS officer would have otherwise remained in office till November 18, 2023, according to the notification issued by the government earlier. Mishra is believed to be an expert in financial matters. Hailing from Uttar Pradesh, he is said to have personally supervised probes in several high-profile cases. He has become a point person in the Narendra Modi government’s fight against corruption. It is for this reason that Mishra was appointed as the chief of ED on November 19, 2018, for a period of two years. Prior to his appointment, Mishra was posted as chief commissioner of Income Tax in Delhi.

During Sanjay Kumar Mishra’s tenure, the ED has earned the sobriquet of “the new CBI” for the swiftness it has shown in probing financial fraud and money laundering cases involving big political figures in the country, angering the Opposition parties for the agency’s actions. It’s also said that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attacked assets worth Rs 65000 crores in just four years alone under the supervision of Sanjay Kumar Mishra.

The federal financial probe agency is believed to have conducted more than 2,000 raids under his supervision.

High-Profile Cases

The Enforcement Directorate, which is the Centre’s apex agency that enforces the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and probed matters related to money launder and other big-ticket financial fraud cases. Under Sanjay Mishra’s supervision, the central investigative agency has launched a probe against several high-profile people and politicians such as Congress' Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's husband Robert Vadra.

ED is also probing cases against Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and National Conference leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah.

Besides, the agency is also facilitating the extradition of fugitives such as Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari. Money laundering accused such as former Yes Bank managing director and chief executive officer Rana Kapoor and ICICI Bank former MD-CEO Chanda Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kochhar have also fallen under the ED scanner under Mishra’s leadership.

At present, the central probe agency is probing the National Herald case against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, the sand mining case involving former Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi's nephew Bhupinder Singh Honey. West Bengal the SSC recruitment scam against former Trinamool Congress leader Partha Chatterjee and aide Arpita Mukherjee and Delhi Excise policy case involving ex-Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia.