Delhi HC seeks Centre’s reply on Greenpeace’s FCRA suspension, fund freeze

Greenpeace India has approached the Delhi High Court challenging the government’s decision to suspend its registration under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act. Senior Advocate Gopal Subramanium, appearing for Greenpeace India society slammed the decision and submitted that ‘this was a clear case of witch hunting and nothing more.’.Citing the earlier judgments delivered by the Delhi High Court which cleared the organisation of any wrongdoing, Subramaniam argued that the suspension of their registration as per Section 13 and 14 of the FCRA, was ‘nothing but an arrogant display of power.’ Subramaniam criticised the stance of the government on various fronts when he submitted before a Single Judge Bench headed by Justice Rajiv Shakhder, about an undisclosed directive issued to the ‘designated bank ‘ by the Ministry of Home Affairs on February 19th’, specifically prohibiting release of funds to Greenpeace..“Such subterranean behaviour needs examination by this Court,” argued Subramaniam and also stated that when Greenpeace made enquiries with the Bank as to why could it not access its own funds, the MHA responded on April 9th by suspending its registration and also slapped a showcase notice as to why the suspension should not be made permanent..Terming this action as completely mala-fide, Subramaniam concluded his arguments by stating,.“As per the show cause notice issued on April 9th, the Government is wrong when it says that the organisation utilised more than 50% of its expenditure towards administrative expenses and consequently, violated certain provisions of the FCRA. Even before seizure or confiscation, you need to give adequate notice. Where is the Government’s power to freeze accounts under the said Act?”.“Such actions only lead us to conclude that the Government does not like divergent views and stifles opinions different than its own. This is nothing but an insidious attempt to squeeze the funds out of the organisation. Most of the employees have not been paid since April and have already started leaving.” .Alluding to the offloading of Greenpeace campaigner Priya Pillai pursuant to the look-out circular issued against her, Subramaniam submitted that the Centre had not apologised till date for violating her dignity..“It is the question of right to dissent? Can you stifle that in a democracy? Image of a nation has to be robust. Are we not striking at Article 14 and 19 (1) (a)?” .Justice Shakhder while issuing notice, directed the counsel appearing for the Centre that regardless of their nature of investigation against the organisation, they ought to obtain instructions on whether the accounts could be accessed for purposes of payment of salaries to the staff and meeting of daily expenses..The Bench also directed the Petitioner to furnish details of expenses that were necessary to ensure daily functioning of the organisation, during the course of the day. After hearing detailed arguments the Bench posted the matter for further hearing on May 26th 2015..Earlier, the Home Ministry said in a statement that there were serious allegations of Greenpeace’s involvement in what it called ‘anti-development’ activities. All seven bank accounts of the organisation had been frozen for 180 days, and a show cause notice was also issued asking why its registration should not be cancelled permanently. This action would make the organisation a non-entity in India, and it would need to close all operations in the country.