New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Thursday conducted raids at the residence and offices of senior Supreme Court lawyers Indira Jaising and her husband Anand Grover in New Delhi in connection with alleged violation of a law on foreign funding.
The CBI had in June this year registered an FIR against Grover and the couple’s NGO Lawyers Collective based on a petition filed by another NGO Lawyers’ Voice in the Supreme Court. Lawyers Voice had alleged that Jaising’s NGO violated the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).
The CBI’s FIR alleged discrepancies in foreign contributions stated by Lawyers Collective in its returns filed with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
NGO’s FCRA licence cancelled in 2016
In 2016, the MHA in a complaint alleged that Lawyers Collective had received foreign aid to the tune worth over Rs 32.39 crore between 2006-07 and 2014-15.
The MHA claimed the NGO’s response to the foreign contributions was not found to be satisfactory, following which its FCRA licence was cancelled that year. The ministry also alleged that the NGO had used foreign contributions for “political purposes”.
This year in June, the MHA had suspended the NGO’s FCRA account for six months and issued a notice, asking why the account should not be cancelled.
This came after the Supreme Court issued a notice to the NGO in May on alleged violations of FCRA.
‘Jaising received remuneration worth Rs 96.6 lakh’
The MHA, in its complaint, had accused Jaising of receiving remuneration worth Rs 96.6 lakh from foreign contributions made to her NGO when she was the additional solicitor general (ASG) during the UPA-II regime from 2009 to 2014. The MHA complaint also said her foreign travels as the ASG were funded by the NGO without the ministry’s approval.
The MHA had alleged that Jaising had violated the FCRA by “not seeking clearances from the government for receiving foreign contributions in the form of remuneration from the organisation and accepting foreign hospitality while visiting a foreign country”, PTI had reported.
The ministry had further alleged that foreign contributions were used for lobbying with MPs on the HIV/AIDS Bill and to organise “paid dharnas” in violation of the FCRA.
The CBI’s FIR, which has taken note of the MHA’s complaint, stated that this was in violation of Section 3 of the FCRA, which prohibits the use of foreign contributions in a way to influence any parliamentary institutions.
Also read: Sexism in Indian judiciary runs so deep it’s unlikely we will get our first woman CJI
Targeted for speaking up in defence of secularism, says NGO
On June 18 this year, Jaising had posted a statement issued by her NGO on Twitter, and when ThePrint contacted her Thursday, she said her stand remained the same.
The NGO had stated that the FCRA proceedings were initiated against it because its office-bearers had taken up “sensitive cases” against the leading figures of the BJP, including Home Minister Amit Shah, among others.
The organisation had said the remuneration was being paid to Jaising before she became the ASG.
“LC (Lawyers Collective) has reason to believe that its officer bearers are being personally targeted for speaking up in defence of human rights, secularism and independence of the judiciary in all fora, particularly in their capacity as Senior Lawyers in Court,” the statement said.
“LC sees this as a blatant attack of the right to representation of all persons, particularly the marginalised and those who dissent in their views from the ruling establishment,” it added.
“It is also an attack in the right to free speech and expression and an attack on the legal profession as such. The right to legal representation is a guaranteed fundamental right under the Constitution of India and is part of the jurisprudence of every civilised country of the world,” read the statement.
Also read: In sexual misconduct probe, Supreme Court should have at least appeared just
Is the lawyers collective above law of land. These alleged violators and also court branch fixers should be punished for their misdeeds under the guise of human rights.