The Delhi High Court in the case Rajiv Gandhi Foundation v. Union of India and the connected matters observed and has stated that it will decide the maintainability of the petitions moved by Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust on July 28, 2023 which is being associated with the Gandhi family, wherein challenging the cancellation of their Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) license.
The bench headed by Justice Jyoti Singh observed wherein the plea was moved by the two organizations against the decision of Ministry of Home Affairs cancelling their FCRA registration for alleged violations of the law.
Therefore, the court in the case observed and has stated that both the organisations are being headed by Sonia Gandhi which includes the Congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi as members. Therefore, the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation also has the former prime minister Manmohan Singh and the former finance minister P. Chidambaram as its members.
The court in the case observed and has issued a notice in the pleas and sought response of the Union Government, ASG Chetan Sharma later raised the said issue for the maintainability of the challenge.
In the present case, the court cancelled the FCRA license by the Union Government after investigations were being carried out by an inter-ministerial committee which is formed in the year 2020 by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Therefore, the same was being done after the BJP alleged that the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation had received funds from the embassy of the People’s Republic of China.
In the said case, the Committee had started investigating the funding of the two organisations in question and the funds which are received by them with respect to a suspected violation of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, PMLA, the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, FCRA and the Income Tax Act, 1991.
Further, the Ministry of Home Affairs in the case stated in an statement made in 2020 that 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, the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust and Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust. Spl. Dir of ED will be the head of the committee.
