Home Ministry scraps FCRA licences of JNU, IIT-K, Jamia...

Among the 4,139 organisations whose Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration was cancelled by the home ministry in July and August, are at least eight top educational institutions, including Jawaharlal Nehru University, IIT-Kanpur and Jamia Milia Islamia — even though the ministry had itself exempted them from the law's provisions last year.

Unless their registrations are restored, the institutions cannot receive contributions from abroad. Ministry officials, however, said the institutions must first produce evidence to back their claim for exemption.

The cancellation of the 4,139 FCRA licences was reported by The Indian Express last month. The action was prompted by the organisations' alleged failure to file details of annual receipts of foreign contributions.

But the eight educational institutions ought to have been exempt, because they are audited by the CAG. The ministry notification of July 1, 2011 which announced the exemption said "all bodies constituted or established by or under a Central Act or State Act requiring to have their accounts compulsorily audited by the Comptroller & Auditor General of India are exempted from all the provisions of FCRA, 2010."

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