The Supreme Court has refused to pass an interim order to give protection. The court said that these organizations should represent to the Center for renewal of their licenses and the Center should decide on them as per law.
The Supreme Court has not given relief to NGOs in the case of cancellation of FCRA licenses of more than 6,000 NGOs for foreign donations. The court has refused to pass an interim order to give protection. The Supreme Court said that these organizations should represent to the Center for renewal of their licenses and the Center should decide on them as per law. The Supreme Court noted the contention of the Center that 11000 NGOs applied and their licenses were renewed. The Supreme Court said that it does not want to interfere at the moment. The matter will come up for hearing later. Most of such organizations are doing good work. Till the time COVID has been notified as a disaster, the license should be renewed. In this way no sky will break. While protesting, SG Tushar Mehta said that this public enthusiastic NGO belongs to Houston of USA. More than 11000 NGOs applied for renewal. Their license has already been extended. I don’t know what is the purpose with this petition, but something is wrong.
The Supreme Court said that the government says that it has already been extended for those who applied. There are 6000 NGOs which have not been expanded. These include Tirupati Devasthanam etc. If 6 thousand NGOs have not applied then they do not want to remain in the current rules. Actually, a petition challenging the cancellation of FCRA registration of more than 6,000 NGOs has been filed in the Supreme Court. It has been said in the petition that the cancellation of fewer licenses may affect the Kovid relief efforts. The petition sought extension of FCRA licenses of NGOs till the time Covid is notified as a ‘national calamity’.
Let us tell you that the NGO Global Peace Initiative of America has filed this petition. The petition also referred to the Missionaries of Charity started by Mother Teresa, though the Center had renewed her FCRA license on January 6.
It has been said in the petition that lakhs of Indians are helped by these NGOs. The sudden and arbitrary cancellation of FCRA registration of thousands of these NGOs is a violation of the rights of the organisations, their workers as well as the millions of Indians they serve. These are especially relevant at a time when the country is facing the third wave of the COVID-19 virus. At present, the cancellation of licenses of around 6000 NGOs will hamper relief efforts and deprive needy citizens of assistance. The role of NGOs in helping deal with the pandemic has also been acknowledged by the Central Government, NITI Aayog and the Prime Minister’s Office itself.
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*Team, www.deepakmiglani.com