Court has observed that FCRA
“does not provide for a government to stifle the very functioning
of individuals or associations”
The Bombay high court has ordered
de-freezing of the domestic and non-FCRA bank accounts of ‘Lawyers
Collective’, the not-for-profit association run by former
Additional Solicitor General of India Ms. Indira Jaising.
Justice M.S. Sonak in an interim
order on 30th
January 2017 restrained the Charity Commissioner from attaching the
assets and accounts of the Lawyers Collective. The High court
observed that while the Union government had powers under the Foreign
Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) to “regulate or, even prevent
the acceptance of foreign funds by an association, the Act did not
provide for a government to stifle the very functioning of
individuals or associations.”
In November
2016, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had cancelled
permanently the FCRA registration of ‘Lawyers Collective’,
alleging misuse of foreign funds. MHA had
also directed that all bank accounts of the NGO be frozen and that
its assets be attached. The association then approached the High
Court arguing that the MHA order that takes recourse under Sections
22 and 15 of the FCRA was erroneous and that the sections had been
misinterpreted.
Senior counsel Aspi Chinoy,
appearing for Lawyers Collective, argued that FCRA provisions allowed
for disposal of assets of only such organisations that had become
defunct, but Lawyers Collective was an existing entity that conducted
extensive legal research in the fields of health and social justice.
The Union government, through
Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, argued on the other hand
that the MHA’s cancellation order was valid since the “trustees
of Lawyers Collective had diverted the money received by the
association for personal gains”. Justice Sonak, however, observed
that some of the allegations leveled by MHA were “quite vague”
and since the appeal will be taken up for final hearing to decide
upon the legality of the MHA’s decision, it would not be
appropriate to halt the functioning of the association in the
meanwhile
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