Dr. Sanjay Pandey, a former professor at National Law University Jodhpur, has been appointed Officer on Special Duty to the current Defence Minister, Arun Jaitley. The appointment, that was announced barely two days ago, is one of the few examples of legal academia merging with policy formulation.

It has been quite a unique career trajectory for the former law teacher. After spending eight years at Jodhpur, he shifted to a consultancy role with the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy. At NIPFP he was working on capital account convertibility under the FEMA. At the same time, keen to teach, he took up a reader position at Amity Law School.

In 2010, he joined the Competition Commission of India, where he is the Joint Director (Law). At the CCI, Pandey focused on building international cooperation and capacity building.

Speaking about his new role, Pandey says that there are a lot of antitrust issues relating to defence procurement, and this will be addressed during his stint as an OSD. On the relationship between policy and law, Pandey says that,

“There is a perpetual debate on whether law precedes policy or vice versa. I believe that policy comes first. At the same time, good policy [only] becomes effective when there is a good law [enforcing] it.”

As for plans to go back to teaching, Pandey remarks,

“I will always be a teacher. Even now, I never miss an opportunity to speak to my students, to work with them. Teaching is in my soul.”