Sanjay Kumar Mishra is an Indian government official. He was the Director of Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Sanjay Kumar Mishra was born in 1960 (age 63 years; as of 2024) in Lucknow, India. Mishra studied master’s in biochemistry from Lucknow University in Uttar Pradesh, India. He was a senior research fellow at the Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), where he authored research papers on the topic of immunology. After this Mishra appeared for the Civil Services Examination, which he passed in his first attempt.
Physical Appearance
Height (Approx): 5′ 4″
Hair Color: Gray
Eye colour: black
Family
parents and siblings
There is not much information about his parents and siblings.
livelihood
Mishra worked as an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer in 1984. His first posting in IRS was as Assistant Director of Income Tax in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. After this he served as Chief Income Tax Commissioner in Delhi. He was then posted in the Enforcement Directorate before returning to Income Tax in 1994, where he was posted in Ahmedabad, then Maharashtra. In 2006, he was posted in Delhi and looked after international taxation and transfer pricing. While he was working in Income Tax, he worked on two cases that caught the attention of the government, one against NDTV and the other against Young Indian. The cases started as tax assessments and Mishra transformed them into prosecutable offences. Mishra was then appointed as Joint Secretary in the Finance Ministry. He also worked under the Home Ministry.
Enforcement Directorate
Sanjay Kumar Mishra joined the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for the first time as Assistant Director and looked after Agra and Jaipur. In 1994, he returned to Income Tax for nine years. In October 2018, Mishra was appointed as Principal Special Director of ED and Acting Director of ED for three months or until the post is filled.
A notice from the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approving the appointment of Mishra in the Enforcement Directorate.
Mishra was appointed as the director of ED on 19 November 2018. Although they were appointed only for a period of two years, the central government passed an order in November 2020, which in simple words gave the government the power to extend the tenure. He extended Mishra’s tenure by one year. Mishra gained prominence by working on the government’s anti-corruption efforts. The government extended his tenure twice. The Center extended his tenure for the second time in 2021 to go till November 2022. In 2022, the government passed a law that allowed the Center to extend Mishra’s tenure for another three years beyond the mandatory three years. In 2023, the government issued a notice stating that his tenure would continue till November 18, 2023. Opposition parties filed a petition in the Supreme Court saying that the Center is taking advantage of its situation. The Supreme Court ruled that the extension was illegal, and allowed Mishra to remain in office until July 31, 2023.
The Center moved the Supreme Court demanding extension of tenure of Enforcement Directorate Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra. The Supreme Court will hear this on July 27. According to the decision of the Supreme Court, SK Mishra’s tenure as ED Director will end on July 31. pic.twitter.com/RoNgeDtgzS
– ANI (@ANI) 26 July 2023
The Center filed another request for extension and the Supreme Court allowed the extension till September 15, 2023. Under his leadership, the ED was known as the “new CBI” as it expedited investigation of financial fraud and money laundering cases involving political figures. Under Mishra’s leadership, the ED is said to have targeted assets worth Rs 65,000 crore through more than 2,000 raids in just four years. From 2018 to 2023, Mishra is said to have conducted around 3,000 searches and registered around 4,000 cases.
notable investigation
During Mishra’s tenure, he was in charge of cases against several notable people, especially politicians and activists from opposition parties. The ED investigated P. Chidambaram (former Finance Minister), Sharad Pawar and Anil Deshmukh (from the Nationalist Congress Party), and V. Senthil Balaji (member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Council), among others. He also investigated against such workers. Harsh Mander as journalist Siddiq Kappan and Newsclick, a media house.
controversies
Controversy over multiple extensions
Sanjay Kumar Mishra faced controversy due to several extensions he got for the post of Director in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) till 2023. Though Mishra started as interim director and was then appointed to serve a two-year tenure from 2018 to 2020, the central government extended it thrice after his superannuation age.
Sanjay Kumar Mishra (eighth from right) after being appointed as the interim director of the Enforcement Directorate.
Several opposition parties filed petitions in the Supreme Court of India challenging the ordinance introduced by the central government with amendments that extended Mishra’s tenure. The government responded by saying that Mishra’s tenure should be extended as he was needed to resolve the ongoing cases. The Center rejected the protests by other parties as motivated and weak. He argued that failure to extend the tenure of ED or CBI directors could slow down the country’s fight against corruption and money laundering. He said that maintaining continuity is important for effective operations. The Supreme Court raised questions on the competency of ED and gave a statement,
Are we not giving the picture that there is no other person and the entire department is full of incompetent people?
Despite controversies and Supreme Court rulings against further extensions, the government repeatedly extended Mishra’s tenure. During his tenure, the ED under Mishra investigated several high-profile cases involving opposition figures, but critics accused the government of selectively targeting its political rivals. Opposition parties also did not back down and accused the government of misusing power. The Supreme Court, which ruled that the extensions were illegal, said Mishra would have to step down as director. The Center made another request to extend Mishra’s tenure till October, and the Supreme Court allowed the extension till September 15, 2023, a month less than the Centre’s request.
Facts/General Knowledge
- Mishra follows intermittent fasting.
- Mishra hates social media and tries his best to keep his life away from the public eye.
- Mishra is an avid reader. He likes to read Urdu poetry of Mirza Ghalib, Qateel Shifai and Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
- Mishra runs 10 kilometers every day. Talking about his health habits, an ED official said,
Sometimes his meetings last for more than an hour and he stands the entire time. So we too remain standing.”
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn