Madras High Court: NGOs Shouldn’t Be Suspected Just Because they are Getting Foreign Aid

The Madras High Court has directed the central government to renew the FCRA registration of the Ellen Sharma Memorial Trust, terming the previous refusal "baseless."

The Court clarified that the trust’s act of transferring foreign funds to sister NGOs did not breach Section 7 of the FCRA, especially since the 2020 amendment it relied upon was valid for only five months.

The court found no misuse of funds or evidence of anti-national conduct, emphasising that mere procedural errors cannot justify penalising charitable organisations. 

The decision also held that reasons under Section 12(5) must be communicated, and ordered the authorities to renew the registration within four weeks.