SC rejects plea to extend lapsed FCRA licences

The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down a plea from an NGO that had sought quashing of the Centre's decision that resulted in 5,789 organisations losing their Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration.

FCRA registration is mandatory for any association and NGO to receive foreign funding. The plea, filed by US-based NGO 'Global Peace Initiative', came up for hearing before a bench comprising Justices A.M. Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and C.T. Ravikumar.

Advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for Global Peace Initiative, had sought a direction from the SC to extend the FCRA licences of NGOs if they applied for it within the next two weeks.

However, the Supreme Court refused any interim relief and directed Global Peace Initiative to approach the authorities with suggestions, Live Law reported.

Appearing for the Centre, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the SC the FCRA licences of 11,594 NGOS, which had sought renewal, within a cut-off date, had been renewed. Mehta also questioned why a US-based organisation was concerned about the issue. “I don't know what is the purpose of this PIL. Something is amiss,” Mehta was quoted as saying by Live Law.

There were 22,762 FCRA-registered organisations till December 31, 2021. On January 1, the number came down to 16,829. These are considered "live" organisations. Officials had said the FCRA licences of 18,778 organisations were expiring between September 29, 2020, and December 31, 2021.

Out of them, as many as 12,989 organisations had applied for renewal of the FCRA licence between September 30, 2020 and December 31, 2021. Since 5,789 organisations did not apply for the renewal of the FCRA licence, they were deemed to have ceased to be registered organisations, an official had said.