CBI Registers Case Against Lawyers Collective, Senior Advocate Anand Grover
Lawyers Collective says this is an attempt by the government to silence them.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a first information report against Lawyers Collective, its President and Senior Advocate Anand Grover and other unnamed persons for alleged violations of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act between 2009-10 and 2014-15.
The non-governmental organisation and Grover will also be investigated for alleged offences such as criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating and making a false declaration which fall under the Indian Penal Code.
The investigation was ordered following a complaint made to the CBI director by the Home Ministry. The complaint stemmed from the inspection carried out of the books of accounts of the NGO in January 2016. Following the inspection, in March 2016, the government suspended the FCRA licence of the organisation and issued a show-cause notice to them. The ministry said on examining the NGO’s reply to the show-cause notice it found instances of violation of rules and cancelled registration of the NGO in November 2016. The Lawyers Collective challenged the move and the appeal is pending in the Bombay High Court.
The NGO has questioned why the CBI did not think it fit to register any criminal cases against the NGO and its office-bearers for nearly two-and-a-half years after the cancellation of its FCRA licence. “There has been no change in the circumstances or material on record since 2016 and hence the question arises what has changed between 2016 and 2019,” Lawyers Collective said in a statement.
The FIR comes a month after a public interest litigation was filed against Lawyers Collective seeking an special probe into the inaction against it. The PIL has been filed by NGO Lawyers Voice. The Supreme Court on May 8, 2019, issued notices to the central government, seeking its response on the PIL.
Lawyers Voice comprises lawyers affiliated to the BJP and its main protagonist is Mr Neeraj, the head of the Legal Cell of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Delhi, said the Lawyers Collective statement.
What Are The Allegations Against Lawyers Collective
The Home Ministry’s inspection report, which is the basis of the complaint against Lawyers Collective, lists 14 alleged instances which constitute prima facie violation of the FCRA Act. These include:
1. Spending money received as foreign contributions for air travel, boarding and lodging and local travel of Grover and other representatives of the organisation. The foreign contribution was also used to organise a protest outside the law ministry and in advocacy efforts with 166 MPs in 2010.
2. Payment of remuneration to Indira Jaising while she was an Additional Solicitor General from 2009 to 2014, as well as funding her travels to Nepal and the U.S. These funds were paid from the money received in foreign contributions which is against the law.
3. The NGO worked in the field of women empowerment and HIV/AIDS by using the funds received as foreign contribution. Both these fields were not listed as objectives of the NGO.
4. While Grover was working as United Nations Special Rapporteur, the organisation received foreign donations between 2008 and 2014 to assist him in his work. This amounts to violation of the FCRA Act as it was not listed as an objective of the organisation and no prior permission of the central government was sought for this purpose.
5. Misappropriation of funds by Grover while he appeared in the Novartis case in 2013. Grover appeared in the Supreme Court for the petitioner Cancer Patient Aid Association who had challenged the patent claim of Novartis over a drug for treatment of leukemia.
Grover used the foreign contribution received by the NGO for foreign travel to work on this case. Tickets for Jaising were also booked even though she was not part of the Novartis case.
6. Foreigners visited India on business/tourist visa to assist Grover in his legal practice but their expenses were paid from the funds of the NGO in violation of the visa norms.
8. The NGO received foreign contributions directly from donors instead of their designated bank account for receipt of such donations. Donations in total of around Rs 26 lakh were received in this manner in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
9. The organisation had transferred money from the designated account for foreign donations to their local account, thus leading to a mixing of both the donations.
10. There is a discrepancy between the returns filed by the NGO to the Home Ministry and the income tax authorities.
The NGO, however, has denied these allegations and said they are being targeted for speaking up in defence of human rights, secularism and independence of the judiciary in all fora, especially in their capacity of senior lawyers in court.
“Lawyers Collective is seeking competent advise and will defend themselves in accordance with the law,” the NGO said.
What Is Lawyers Collective?
A non governmental organisation, Lawyers Collective is a group of lawyers engaged in human rights advocacy. As mentioned on its website, it works in areas of domestic violence, sexual harassment at workplace, matrimonial matters, crimes against women, among others. Grover is a director at the NGO and Jaising holds the position of secretary.
Its trustees are Hosbet Suresh, a former judge of the Bombay High Court, activist and lawyer Norma Alvares who was awarded the Padma Shri in 2002, noted human rights lawyers Mihir Desai and Nilima Dutta and Sanober Keshwar of Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
Grover, in his capacity as a senior advocate, has appeared in a number of public interest cases which include de-criminalisation of homosexuality (Section 377), recognition of gender identity of transgenders and the landmark Novartis patent case of 2013. He had also appeared for Yakub Memon when the Supreme Court held the unprecedented midnight hearing on his mercy petition in 2015.
Jaising, awarded the Padma Shri in 2004, has also advocated several landmark cases ranging from the right of pavement dwellers in the Olga Tellis case to one of India’s earliest sexual harassment cases against top cop KPS Gill. She has represented victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy and activists such as Teesta Setalvad and Priya Pillai. In 2009 she was the first woman to be appointed Additional Solicitor General of India.
In the recent past the NGO also represented activists detained in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Lawyers In Defence Of Grover
Grover, Jaising and the NGO have found support from senior lawyers. “Ever since its introduction during the emergency, rarely have the provisions of the FCRA been so selectively implemented as in recent times,” Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde said on the FIR filed against Lawyers Collective and Grover.
“I am sure that after investigation, none of these charges can be proved and I doubt very much that the matter will proceed to a trial,” Hegde, who has appeared on the same side as well as against Grover in a number of court cases, said. “Anand Grover and the Lawyers Collective have been in the forefront of public interest issues. It may well be that some of the causes they have espoused in recent times have not been to the liking of various governments including the current one.’’
According to Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan, the FIR against Lawyers Collective and Grover is malafide and designed to harass them. “They are taking up uncomfortable issues involving the government. The malafide nature is clear from the fact that it says foreign money was spent on political advocacy. If that is the case, then how can political parties take foreign contributions. They have amended the FCRA to allow political parties to take money from subsidiaries of foreign companies,’’ Bhushan said.