Enforcement Directorate


The Directorate of Enforcement is a law enforcement agency and economic intelligence agency responsible for enforcing economic laws and fighting economic crime in India. It is part of the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government Of India. It is composed of officers from the Indian Revenue Service, Indian Corporate Law Service, Indian Police Service and the Indian Administrative Service. The origin of this Directorate goes back to 1 May 1956, when an ‘Enforcement Unit’ was formed, in Department of Economic Affairs, for handling Exchange Control Laws violations under Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947. In the year 1957, this Unit was renamed as ‘Enforcement Directorate’.
Sanjay Kumar Mishra former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, New Delhi was appointed as ED chief in the rank of Secretary to Government of India.

Objective

The prime objective of the Enforcement Directorate is the enforcement of two key Acts of the Government of India namely, the Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999 and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002
The ED's official website enlists its other objectives which are primarily linked to checking money laundering in India. In fact this is an investigation agency so providing the complete details on public domain is against the rules of GOI.

Organizational Set Up

The Directorate of Enforcement, with its Headquarters at New Delhi is headed by the Director of Enforcement. There are five Regional offices at Mumbai, Chennai, Chandigarh, Kolkata and Delhi headed by Special Directors of Enforcement.
Zonal Offices of the Directorate are at Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Cochin, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Hyderabad. These are headed by a Joint Director.
The Directorate has Sub-Zonal Offices at Jaipur, Jalandhar, Srinagar, Varanasi, Guwahati, Calicut, Indore, Nagpur, Patna, Bhubaneshwar and Madurai which are headed by a Deputy Director.

Special courts

For the trial of an offence punishable under section 4 of PMLA, the Central Government, designates one or more Sessions Court as Special Court. The court is also called "PMLA Court". Any appeal against any order passed by PMLA court can directly be filed in the High Court for that jurisdiction.