CBI case against lawyer, his NGO

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 18

Based on a complaint filed by the foreigner’s division of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the CBI has registered a case against noted lawyer Anand Grover and his Mumbai-based NGO, Lawyers Collective, for alleged violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010, in receiving overseas aid.

Even as the allegation was strongly disputed by Lawyers Collective in a statement issued last month, the CBI in the FIR has named Grover, the president of Lawyers Collective, and unidentified office-bearers of the organisation, besides unidentified officials.

The CBI has not named Grover’s wife and former additional solicitor general (ASG) Indira Jaising as an accused in the FIR, but the MHA complaint filed with the agency has her name mentioned. The complaint is now part of the FIR.

The ministry has alleged that Jaising, as the ASG from 2009-14, had received remunerations worth Rs 96.60 lakh from the foreign contributions received by Lawyers Collective. It has also stated that her foreign travels as ASG were funded by Lawyers Collective, using such contributions, without prior approval of the ministry.

In the complaint, the MHA has said the ASG is paid by the government from the Consolidated Fund of India and carries out very sensitive and high-level work, including inter-alia, giving advice to the government in legal matters, appearing in the Supreme Court and high courts on its behalf and representing it in any reference made by the president to the apex court.

It is also alleged that Jaising violated the FCRA by “not seeking clearances from the government for receiving foreign contributions in the form of remuneration from the organisation and accepting foreign hospitality while visiting a foreign country”.