Indira Jaising's NGO says home ministry cancelling its FCRA licence is harassment

Since Greenpeace was hounded out of the country last year, the noose has ben tightened around Lawyers Collective, a legal NGO led by eminent Supreme Court advocates Indira Jaising and Anand Grover. According to the duo, the Union ministry of home affairs has been subjecting the organisation to unmerited harassmnet and persecution, especially in the context of the cases that the NGO has been at the forefront of, such as Section 377, as well as representing the late Sohrabuddin Sheikh, the late Yakub Memon and Sanjiv Bhat, while fighting in court against the establishment faces such as Amit Shah. 

Much like the modus operandi used in forcing Greenpeace to shut its shop, really crunching its funds, seizing its bank accounts and disallowing FCRA, the home ministry has been after Lawyers Collective, erecting many a flimsy excuse of money being misused. Jaising and Grover have been at the helm of a number of public interest litigations that have been at loggerheads with the present government's interests.

Jaising and Grover have dubbed the frequent assaults on their organisation as well as the constant hampering of their ability to work as lawyers as an attack on their right to free speech and right to association, which speaks poorly of the government. 

Read the full statement below.

Lawyers Collective (LC) has received an order dated November 27, 2016 cancelling its registration to receive foreign contribution under Section 14(1), Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 ("FCRA"), on 29th November, 2016 at its registered office at Mumbai. The cancellation order is on the grounds that LC allegedly has violated the terms and conditions of its registration certificate, violated the provisions of the FCRA, and most importantly, acted against "public interest".

Strangely enough, the order is passed on a Sunday, when government offices are closed.

The order repeats what is alleged in the show cause cum suspension order dated 31.05.2016 and disregards LC's replies in fact and in law. At the same time, certain new allegations have surfaced such as "diversion" of foreign contribution and utilisation for "personal gain", which are not borne out by the facts or the records, are absolutely false and defamatory. It is preposterous for the MHA to suggest that LC has no record of work, when the Government of India has itself acknowledged LC's contributions towards advancing women's rights, securing access to affordable medicines, protecting the rights of HIV positive people as well as transgender persons and continues to call upon LC for legal inputs.

LC reiterates that the current proceedings under FCRA, including the latest cancellation order, are only a continuation of the harassment and persecution of the organisation, especially of its two trustees, Ms Indira Jaising and Mr Anand Grover, Senior Advocates, perpetrated by the Government, over last one year. Both Ms Jaising and Mr Grover have been and are continuing to take up sensitive cases, in their professional capacity, against the powerful functionaries of the present ruling establishment, including Amit Shah, Sohrabuddin, Yakub Memon and Sanjiv Bhat. LC perceives this to be a clear attack on the right to legal representation of persons who need legal services the most and a gross abuse of powers by the government of the day. It is also a clear attack on the right to free speech and association guaranteed by the Constitution of India.

Last month, the MHA refused to renew LC's registration under the FCRA. According to media reports, LC is among a list of 25 NGOs "allegedly taking part in activities detrimental to the country's interest".

LC calls upon the government to make the intelligence reports (based on which LC was put under the list of 25 NGOs) public so that we have an opportunity to challenge the reports against us, an elementary tool of natural justice.

LC is exploring all legal options to challenge the cancellation order, including its defamatory contents, and will take necessary action in an appropriate time.

Also read: Home ministry is deliberately targeting us: Indira Jaising on FCRA row