The Kerala High Court has set aside a Union government order refusing to renew the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act registration of two non-profits on the grounds that they had funded protests against the Adani port project in Vizhinjam, reported Bar and Bench on Wednesday.

Registration under the Act is mandatory for non-profit organisations to receive foreign funds.

Even if the organisations – Kerala Social Service Forum and Save a Family Plan India – had provided financial support to protesters, it could not be treated as the use of foreign funds for an undesirable purpose, said Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas in his order on Tuesday.

In 2022, a group of fisherfolk staged protests against the Rs 7,500-crore project led by billionaire Gautam Adani’s ports business. They alleged that the project would cause coastal erosion and damage their livelihoods.

The protest turned violent on November 26, 2022, after demonstrators prevented the Adani Group from resuming construction at the project site, where work had been suspended for four months. The construction at the port site subsequently resumed on the directions of the Kerala High Court.

Kerala Social Service Forum and Save a Family Plan India had been registered to receive foreign funds since 1985, reported Bar and Bench.

The Union government refused to renew their registrations after 2021, claiming that the organisations had diverted their funds to provide financial support to the protesters against the Vizhinjam project.

The organisations moved the High Court against the Union government’s decision.

On Tuesday, the court held that the government’s “distaste for protests or dissents” could not be grounds for holding that the constitutionally protected right to protest was against “public interest”.

“Thus, even if it is assumed that some financial support was provided to the protestors, it cannot be treated as diversion of foreign contribution for an undesirable purpose or against public interest, tantamount to violation of any provision in the FCRA,” the judge was quoted as saying by Bar and Bench.

The court also said that the government had not provided reasons for rejecting the organisations’ application to renew their FCRA registration. This was “essential” in a democratic country, it added.

“An order without reason is an action born of whim and not of law,” the judge said.

He held that the Union government’s decision was arbitrary and illegal, and set it aside.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

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