SC junks Centre's plea against order directing NGO's FCRA renewal

New Delhi, Sep 19 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the Centre's plea challenging an order directing the renewal of an organisation's registration under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010.

The matter came up for hearing before a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta.

The counsel appearing for the Centre said the renewal was not done as there was alleged violation of Section 7 of the FCRA Act.

Section 7 of the Act deals with prohibition to transfer foreign contribution to other person.

"What else? Have they misappropriated? Is there any abuse of the funds received by them? There is no such findings at all. If they are doing some social service... what is your problem?," the bench asked.

When the counsel referred to section 7 of the Act, the bench said, "Dismissed".

"Don't complicate things. Don't further harass them," the bench observed.

The Centre had challenged a June 2025 order of the Madras High Court.

The high court passed the order on two petitions, including the one challenging the proceedings rejecting the application for renewal of registration under the Act.

The trust argued in the high court that it was founded in 1982 with the object of improving education and overall welfare of children.

The trust said it received foreign donations and obtained a certificate of registration under Section 12 of the Act in March 1983.

It said the latest renewal took place with effect from November 2016 for a period of five years.

The trust said it filed an application in February 2021 under Section 16 of the Act for renewal of the certificate of registration and in December 2021, it received a communication informing that the application for renewal was refused.

The high court noted the other appellant before it was one of the sister NGOs of the trust and its application for renewal was also rejected in December 2021.

The Centre, however, argued that the right to receive foreign contributions was not a vested right and couldn't be claimed as a matter of right by the petitioners, which it said violated the provisions of Section 7 of the Act.

"The report placed before this court in the sealed cover does not indicate even a single instance where any such diversion has taken place. As a matter of fact, there is no complaint against both the petitioner trust as well as the appellant that they have wrongly transferred any foreign contribution," the high court said.

The high court, therefore, directed the authority to act upon the respective application for renewal of registration and grant renewal under Section 16 of the Act within four weeks from its order.

"It is inevitable to sum up that just because some institutions run with the aid of foreign contribution, it is not necessary to look at the institutions like that of the petitioners with suspicion unless there are materials to show that such foreign contribution is being misused and it is being used against public interest/national interest," the high court added. PTI ABA ABA AMK AMK