Home Ministry defends Greenpeace FCRA registration cancellation in Delhi HC

NEW DELHI: The Union Home Ministry ( MHA) today defended its decision to cancel the foreign contribution registration of Greenpeace India before the Delhi High Court, saying the NGO had violated the norms by opening five accounts to utilise foreign donations without informing the relevant authorities.

The MHA, in an affidavit before Justice V P Vaish charged Greenpeace with violating Foreign Contribution Regulation Act ( FCRA) by merging its foreign donations with domestic contributions.

Holding that Greenpeace have not come before the court with clean hands, the ministry said they were "continuing to use their FCRA accounts despite suspension of the same on April 9, 2015".

"It is submitted that sufficient materials are there to prove that Greenpeace violated various sections of FCRA 2010, which are also mentioned in the suspension order dt. April 9.

"The suspension order mention about 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 MHA said in their affidavit.

The affidavit has been filed in a plea moved by the NGO challenging suspension of its FCRA registration and freezing of its foreign and domestic contribution accounts.

The court had on May 27 allowed Greenpeace to use two of its accounts for the purpose of receiving and utilising fresh domestic donations for its day-to-day functioning. The Ministry had on April 9 this year suspended the NGO's registration under FCRA for 180 days.