Madras High Court Puts Greenpeace India’s Shutdown on Hold

The Madras High Court unconditionally stays an order of cancelling Greenpeace’s licence to operate.

School children, brought together by Greenpeace for a climate change demonstration, carry placards near the venue where US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to meet India’s foreign minister in New Delhi July 20, 2009. (Photo: Reuters)

The Madras High Court has put on hold Greenpeace India’s registration cancellation, observing that the Tamil Nadu Registrar of Societies (RoS) had not followed principles of natural justice.

Earlier in April the government had cancelled the registration of Greenpeace India citing financial fraud and falsification of data.

The MHA’s clumsy tactics, to suppress free speech and dissenting voices, are turning into a major national and international embarrassment for this government

<b>Priya Pillai, as quoted saying from the Greenpeace India press release</b>

Pillai also added, “As a people powered organisation, instead of fighting and winning legal battles, we would much rather continue to contribute to solve India’s serious development challenges – air pollution, disappearing forests, the need for safe food and clean electricity for all. Surely, solving these problems is part of the government’s agenda too. We’d like to once again ask them to collaborate with civil society on these issues.”