Prominent academic institutions like JNU, Delhi University, IIT-Delhi, and ICAR along with the Supreme Court Bar Association are among several hundred organisations barred by the Centre from receiving foreign funds.
The registration of these institutions under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 (FCRA) has been cancelled by the Union Home Ministry as these have failed to file their annual returns for five consecutive years.
No organisation is allowed to receive funds from abroad unless it is registered under the FCRA. It is mandatory under the law for such organisations to submit income and expenditure statement to the government annually else their registration is cancelled.
Among the institutions whose FCRA licence have been cancelled include Jawaharlal Nehru University, University Of Delhi, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Indian Institute Of Technology in Delhi, Panjab University, Indian Council Of Agricultural Research, and DU’s Lady Irwin, Gargi and SGTB Khalsa colleges according to the documents accessed by PTI.
Other organisations whose FCRA registrations were cancelled include the Supreme Court Bar Association, Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, Gandhi Peace Foundation, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, Armed Forces Flag Day Fund, School Of Planning & Architecture, Delhi and FICCI Socio Economic Development Foundation.
The Doon School Old Boys Association, Dr. Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia International Trust, Co-ordinating Voluntary Adoption Resource Agency have also been barred from receiving donations from abroad and their FCRA registrations cancelled.
The FCRA registrations of the Bombay Diocesan Society, Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Karnataka, Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, Bangalore, Shri Mahatma Gandhi Charitable Trust, Gujarat and Sri Satya Sai Trust were also cancelled by the home ministry.
The action came after the organisations failed to file the returns for five consecutive years, 2010-11 to 2014-15, despite serving repeated notices, a home ministry official said.
In May, as a one-time measure, all NGOs were given an opportunity for one month to file their missing annual returns by 14 June without paying any penalty. Email and SMS alerts were also sent to them regularly for one month beginning mid- May, the official said.
The organisations were asked to furnish their replies, if any, by 23 July, failing which, the ministry had said, it would be presumed that they have nothing to say and action as proposed would be taken as per FCRA.
According to the FCRA, the renewal of registration for receiving foreign funds cannot be granted unless the annual returns are uploaded on the FCRA website by the organisation.
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