HC stays govt's show cause notice to NGO

The Delhi High Court today stayed the operation of a show cause notice issued to an NGO for not complying with the mandatory requirements of filing the annual returns of foreign receipts.
Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva passed the order after the NGO, Centre for Promotion of Social Concerns (CPSC), moved the court alleging that the government had refused to renew their licence under FCRA in October last year but the notice was issued in December.
"How can they now issue a show cause if the registration of the CPSC has already expired on October 31, 2016," the NGO, better known by its programme unit 'People's Watch', said.

It submitted that the notice cannot be issued to the NGO once its licence has been cancelled.
Taking note of this, the court said that the government should give an explanation by May 1.
It also asked Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to produce before it the documents on the basis of which CPSC's registration was cancelled under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).
Earlier, the high court had refused to defreeze the NGO's account enabling it to use its foreign funds as the government had claimed that the decision not to renew foreign funding registration under FCRA was taken in "public interest".

CPSC, in an earlier plea, had sought the setting aside of the government's October 29 last year's decision refusing to renew its registration.