Home Ministry defends cancellation of Greenpeace’s FCRA registration

NEW DELHI: The ministry of home affairs (MHA) on Friday defended in the Delhi high court its decision to cancel the FCRA registration of Greenpeace India, on the grounds that the NGO continued to violate guidelines. It said Greenpeace had opened multiple accounts to utilize foreign donations but kept the authorities in the dark.

In an affidavit filed before Justice VP Vaish, the Centre also charged Greenpeace with violating the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) by merging its foreign donations with domestic contributions. It maintained that the NGO "continues to use FCRA accounts despite suspension of the same on April 9, 2015".

Justifying the September 2 decision of cancelling the registration, the government said it had "sufficient materials to prove that Greenpeace violated various sections of FCRA 2010, which are also mentioned in the suspension order. The suspension order mentions acts and omissions on the part of Greenpeace regarding violations of provisions of FCRA 2010 and Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Rules (FCRR) 2011 and a reasonable opportunity was also given to them."

The ministry's response came on a plea moved by the NGO challenging suspension of its FCRA registration and freezing of its foreign and domestic contribution accounts.

On May 27, the HC had permitted Greenpeace to use two of its accounts for the purpose of receiving and utilizing fresh domestic donations for its day-to-day functioning. Earlier, on April 9, the MHA had suspended the NGO's registration for 180 days.

"The accounts were frozen in accordance with section 13 (2) FCRA 2010," the ministry said.

The HC will now take a view on the MHA's decision on September 17.