Greenpeace India sympathisers and employees can heave a sigh a relief now, as access to two of its frozen bank accounts has been restored, thanks to the Delhi High Court’s verdict issued by Justice Rajiv Shakdher.
The verdict has also allowed Greenpeace, a Non Government Organization (NGO) working with environmental problems like climate change and nuclear energy, to liquidate its fixed deposits.
The government had frozen bank accounts of Greenpeace and 8,974 other NGOs, accusing them of violating the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA).
The government had accused Greenpeace for merging their foreign donations with domestic donations and not informing the authorities about the five bank accounts used for the foreign donations.
In January, after the government crackdown on NGOs, the Delhi High Court had asked banks to allow Greenpeace to use their domestic accounts.
Do you go by orders of the court or that of the government, you have to follow court’s judgement.
— Delhi High Court
Today, it asked the concerned banks about this High Court Order violation.
Due to the freeze, Greenpeace claims to have lost domestic donations close to Rs 125,00,000 and will lose equal amounts in June if the freeze continues.
(With inputs from the PTI)
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