Delhi High Court To Decide Maintainability Of Pleas Filed By Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, Charitable Trust Against Cancellation Of FCRA License

The Delhi High Court on Thursday said that it will decide on July 28 the maintainability of the petitions moved by Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust, associated with the Gandhi family, challenging the cancellation of their Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) license.

Justice Jyoti Singh was hearing the pleas moved by the two organizations against the decision of Ministry of Home Affairs cancelling their FCRA registration for alleged violations of the law.

Both the organisations are headed by Sonia Gandhi and includes Congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi as members. The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation also has former prime minister Manmohan Singh and former finance minister P. Chidambaram as its members.

Although the court initially issued notice in the pleas and sought response of the Union Government, ASG Chetan Sharma later raised the issue of maintainability of the challenge. 

Justice Singh will now decide the aspect of maintainability of the petitions in July before hearing the matter on merits.

The FCRA license was cancelled by the Union Government after investigations were carried out by an inter-ministerial committee formed in 2020 by the Ministry of Home Affairs. This was done after the BJP alleged that the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation had received funds from the embassy of the People’s Republic of China.

The Committee had started investigating the funding of the two organisations in question and the funds received by them with respect to a suspected violation of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) and the Income Tax Act.

In a statement made in 2020, the Ministry of Home Affairs had said: “MHA sets up inter-ministerial committee to coordinate investigations into violation of various legal provisions of PMLA, Income Tax Act, FCRA etc. by Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust & Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust. Spl. Dir of ED will head the committee”.

Title: RAJIV GANDHI FOUNDATION v. UNION OF INDIA and other connected matter