Enforcement Directorate

The Directorate of Enforcement (Hindi: प्रवर्तन निदेशालय) is a law enforcement agency and economic intelligence agency responsible for enforcing economic laws and fighting economic crime in India.^[1] It is part of the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance. It comprises officers of the Indian Revenue 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’.^[2]

Objective

The prime objective of the Enforcement Directorate is the enforcement of two key Acts^[3] of the Government of India namely, the Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999 (FEMA) and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 (PMLA)

The ED's (Enforcement Directorate) official website enlists its other objectives which are primarily linked to checking money laundering in India. In fact this is an investigation agency so giving the whole 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 Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Kochi, Delhi, Panaji, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Patna and Srinagar. These are headed by a Joint Director.

The Directorate has Sub-Zonal Offices at Bhubaneshwar, Kozhikode, Indore, Madurai, Nagpur, Allahabad, Raipur, Dehradun, Ranchi, Surat and Shimla which are headed by a Deputy Director.

Special courts

For the trial of an offence punishable under section 4 of PMLA, the Central Government (in consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court), designates one or more Sessions Court as Special Court(s). 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.^[4]

References