FCRA registration: SC to hear plea against Centre's decision on Tuesday

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said that it would hear on Tuesday a petition which has sought quashing of the Centre's alleged decision by which 5,789 entities lost their Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration.

The FCRA registration is mandatory for any association and NGO to receive foreign funding.

The plea, filed by US-based NGO 'Global Peace Initiative', came up for hearing before a bench comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and C T Ravikumar.

The bench said the matter would be heard on Tuesday.

There were 22,762 FCRA-registered organisations till December 31, 2021.

On January 1, the number came down to 16,829. These are considered "live" organisations.

The officials had said the FCRA licences of 18,778 organisations were expiring between September 29, 2020 and December 31, 2021.

Out of them, as many as 12,989 organisations have applied for renewal of the FCRA licence between September 30, 2020 and December 31, 2021.

Since 5,789 organisations did not apply for the renewal of the FCRA licence, they were deemed to have ceased to be registered organisations, an official had said.

In addition to them, renewal application of 179 organisations were also rejected by the Home Ministry due to different reasons.