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

PTI, New Delhi, Sep 19, 2025: 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 an alleged violation of Section 7 of the FCRA.

Section 7 of the Act deals with the prohibition on transferring foreign contributions to any other person.

“What else? Have they misappropriated? Is there any abuse of the funds received by them? There are 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 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 the overall welfare of children.

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

The latest renewal took effect in 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 had been refused.

The high court noted that another appellant before it, a sister NGO of the trust, had also had its renewal application rejected in December 2021.

The Centre, however, argued that the right to receive foreign contributions was not a vested right and could not be claimed as a matter of right by the petitioners, who, it said, had 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 either the petitioner trust or 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 applications 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 used against public interest/national interest,” the high court added.