SC to hear plea against refusal to renew FCRA registration to 6k NGOs

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a plea for quashing of the Centre's decisions by which it has refused to renew or cancelled FCRA registration for close to 6000 NGOs and listed the case for hearing on January 24.

A bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar agreed to the plea for early hearing on a petition filed by US-based NGO Global Peace Initiative which was founded by an Indian and has branches across the world and works closely with many NGOs, including the Missionaries of Charity .

It passed the order after Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde and lawyer Pranjal Kishore, appearing for the petitioner, mentioned the matter.

The organisation, founded by Kilari Anand, submitted in the apex court that NGOs played a very crucial and important role in reaching out to people and helped the country during the Covid pandemic which had been duly acknowledged by the government and the Prime Minister’s Office and cancellation of the licenses of close to 6000 NGOs at this juncture will hamper relief efforts and lead to denial of aid to citizens in need.

It requested the court to pass appropriate order for quashing the decisions/orders of the government by which it has refused the renewal of the FCRA registration or cancelled the registration of the NGOs.

It also pleaded the court to pass direction to extend the validity of registration of those organisations that had failed to apply for renewal of registration, "till such time as Covid-19 continues to be a ‘notified disaster’ under the Disaster Management Act".

"The work done by these NGOs helped millions of Indians. The sudden and arbitrary cancellation of FCRA registration of thousands of these NGOs violates the rights of the organisations, their workers as well as the millions of Indians who they serve. This is especially relevant at a time when the country is facing the third wave of the Covid-19 virus," it said.

"These NGOs, which play a prominent role in the society, have been mandated to renew their registration certificates, under Sections 12 and 16 of the FCRA. In the absence of such renewed and relatively more onerous registration licences, the NGOs have been prohibited from receiving and/or utilising foreign contributions to their organisations. The foreign contributions, in fact, are generally of vital importance for the smooth operations of such organisations. Therefore, any prohibition on the NGOs from receiving or utilising such foreign contributions severely and unfairly impacts the financial viability of running such organisations, and is violative of fundamental rights of such organisations," the petition said.