MHA allegations vague, will explore all legal remedies: CHRI on FCRA cancellation

“CHRI will seek all remedies in law to reverse the MHA’s cancellation order. Meanwhile, CHRI will continue to work for the practical realisation of people’s human rights, access to justice and access to information, as per its mandate,” it added.

According to the CHRI, the MHA’s April 19 order of cancellation cited three main grounds for taking action against the NGO. The first ground was that CHRI had credited a sum of Rs. 31.9 lakh in its FCRA bank account even though it is not covered under the definition of ‘foreign contribution’. “On two occasions, CHRI explained to the MHA, with supporting evidence, that these funds were received from foreign donor agencies situated in the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka for carrying out specific project activities in India in 2014 and 2018, respectively. Even though these were consultancy project agreements, out of abundant caution, CHRI reported them to MHA as contributions received from ‘foreign sources’ which indeed they are,” it said in the statement.

The second ground was that the NGO provided incomplete information in FC-4 Form in financial year (FY) 2018-19 by not disclosing details of activities/projects for which foreign contributions had been received and utilised. On this, the CHRI said that the information had been submitted online as an annexure to its annual report in the prescribed form and the same had been furnished to the MHA during the probe period.

As part of the same ground, MHA had alleged that CHRI provided incorrect and conflicting information in FC-4 Form in AR from 2013-14 to 2018-19 regarding opening and closing balances of foreign contributions. Responding to this, CHRI has said it follows an accrual-based accounting system, and not a cash-based accounting system and in order to arrive at the year-wise Opening/Closing Balance, the MHA Audit Team has taken into consideration only the cash and bank accounts but not taken into consideration Fixed Deposits reported under the head: “Total investment in term deposit in FC-4”, for FYs 2014-15 and 2017-18.

“This has resulted in the differences in the opening and closing balance as calculated by CHRI and MHA’s Audit Team,” the statement said adding that it would not be appropriate to compare the balances shown in FC4 returns with the Receipts and Payment Accounts. It also said that the audit team report has typographical errors.

The third ground for cancellation was that the association has utilised foreign contributions on activities beyond the scope of the Act for which the registration was granted thereby violating various provisions of the FCRA. “CHRI is unable to offer any explanation against such a vague and bald allegation which finds mention only in the cancellation order but not during any of the prior proceedings,” the NGO said in response.

However, in the observations of its audit team and the December 2021 show cause notice, it said, MHA had alleged that CHRI has utilised foreign contributions received for the benefit of foreign countries and foreign citizens from FYs 2013-14 to 2019-20. “This allegation is not mentioned in the cancellation order,” it said.

It said it had explained to MHA during the probe that there was nothing in the FCRA that proscribes activities abroad by an NGO, especially when such activities are in furtherance of the declared “purpose for which the contribution has been received” as well as the stated aims and objectives of the Association.

“CHRI’s activities abroad are squarely in compliance with the provisions of the Act …the total cost on activities undertaken by CHRI with benefit to citizens of foreign countries including CHRI’s staff time, as a percentage of the total utilisation of foreign contribution during the FYs 2013-14 to 2019-20 is 7.37% only,” it said.