Ongoing harassment against the Lawyers Collective and its co-founders Mr. Anand Grover and Ms. Indira Jaising

Judicial harassment

India
July 11, 2019

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership ofthe World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and FIDH, has received newinformation and requests your urgent intervention in the following situation inIndia.

New information:

The Observatory has been informed by reliablesources about the ongoing harassment against the Indian NGO LawyersCollective and its co-founders and lawyers Mr. Anand Grover andMs. Indira Jaising. Lawyers Collective is a prominent public interest service provider inIndia with an established record ofsetting high standards in human rights advocacy, legal aid and litigation[1].

Accordingto the information received, on July 11, 2019, at around 5 am, India’s CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI) raided the office of the Lawyers Collective inNew Delhi, its other office in Mumbai, as well as the residences of Ms. IndiraJaising and Mr Anand Grover in New Delhi.

The raids follow the First Information Report(FIR) filed by the CBI on June 13, 2019, in a case againstLawyers Collective and Anand Grover for alleged violation of the ForeignContribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), relying on an investigation report ofJanuary 2016 of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Although the CBI’s FIR didnot name Ms. Indira Jaising as an accused, the complaint filed by the MHA,which is part of the FIR, mentions allegations against her. The MHA report hasbeen challenged by Lawyers Collective in January 2017 and the case is underconsideration by the High Court of Bombay (see background information).

The Observatory condemns the ongoing harassmentagainst Lawyers Collective, Ms. Indira Jaising, andMr. Anand Grover by the Government of India. The Observatory calls uponthe Indian authorities to put an immediate end tothese acts of harassment, which seem to be aimed to punish LawyersCollective and its representatives for their humanrights work, including court litigation in cases involving human rightsviolations.

Background information:

On May 31, 2016, theMinistry of Home Affairs (MHA) suspended the FCRA registration of LawyersCollective. In addition, the Ministry of Home Affairs leaked the suspensionnotice to the press before Lawyers Collective received a copy. This suspensionof the FCRA registration was based on allegations that Lawyers Collective, inparticular Mr. Grover and Ms. Indira Jaising, co-founders of the LawyersCollective, had violated FCRA regulations.

These allegations include the followingviolations of FCRA regulations: a) remunerations paid by Lawyers Collective toMs. Jaising for services provided by her while she was also serving as agovernment servant (as the Additional Solicitor General of India); b) thereimbursement of expenses for telephone and internet incurred by Mr. Groverwhile he was serving as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health; c)Lawyers Collective’s use of funds it had received through the FCRA to organise dharnas[2]and rallies. Lawyers Collective has denied all the aforementioned allegations.

TheFCRA license was subsequently not renewed on October 28, 2016, and thencancelled on November 27, 2016. Lawyers Collective challenged the cancellationand non-renewal on January 25, 2017 and March 31, 2017, respectively in theHigh Court of Bombay which is under consideration. FCRA cancellation and non-renewalwere based on this report by the MHA.

In January 2017, the Bombay High Court passed an interim orderunfreezing the domestic and non-FCRA bank accounts of Lawyers Collective. TheCourt ruled that while the Government of India had powers under the FCRA to“regulate or, even prevent the acceptance of foreign funds by an association,the Act did not provide for a government to stifle the very functioning ofindividuals or associations”.

On May 8, 2019, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice ofIndia Ranjan Gogoi issued a notice in a petition filed on May 6 by anorganisation called ‘Lawyers Voice.’ The petition demanded that theGovernment of India initiate criminal proceedings against Lawyers Collective, Mr. Anand Grover, and Ms. IndiraJaising, for the alleged misuse offoreign funding under the 2010 FCRA.

The bench issued the noticedespite the fact that the petition did not provide any supporting information,and that the cancellation of Lawyers Collective’sFCRA licence was still being challenged by Lawyers Collective before the High Court ofBombay.

OnMay 15, 2019, Mr. Anil Kumar Dhasmana, Under-Secretary of the MHA, wrote to theDirector of the CBI requesting “further investigation as per law” againstLawyers Collective.

On June 13, 2019, the CBI filed a criminalcase against Lawyers Collective, Mr. Anand Grover, and other representatives ofthe organisation under Sections 120-B (“criminalconspiracy”), 406 (“criminalbreach of trust”), 420 (“cheating”) and199 (“false statement made indeclaration”) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC); and Sections 33 (“making of false statement, declaration ordelivering false accounts”), 35 (“punishment for contravention of any provisionsof the Act”), 37 (“penalty for offences where no separate punishment has been provided”), and 39 (“offencesby companies”) of the FCRA; and Sections 13 (1) (d) and 13 (2) ofthe Prevention of Corruption Act (PC) 1988[3].The charges filed by the CBI were based on a report of the MHA, which hadresulted in the suspension of Lawyers Collective’s FCRA license on May 31,2016.

Actionsrequested:

Please write to the authorities in India,urging them to:

i. Put an end to all acts ofharassment, including at the judicial level, against Lawyers Collective, Mr.Anand Grover, Ms. Indira Jaising as well as ofall human rights defenders in India and ensure that they areable to carry out their activities without hindrance;

ii. Take steps to repeal or comprehensively amend theForeign Contribution Regulation Act, in line with the legal analysis of the former UN SpecialRapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association;

iii. Conform to the provisionsof the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted on December 9, 1998 bythe United Nations General Assembly, in particular its Articles 1 and 12.2.;

iv. Ensure in all circumstancesrespect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance withinternational human rights instruments ratified by India.

Addresses:

· Mr. Shri Narendra Damodardas Modi, Prime Minister ofIndia, Fax: + 91 11 2301 6857. E-mail: pmosb@pmo.nic.in / manmo@sansad.in

· Mr. Amit Shah, Union Minister of Home Affairs ofIndia, Fax: +91 11 2309 2979. Email: dirfcra-mha@gov.in

· Mr. Rajiv Gauba,Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs of India, Email: hshso@nic.in

· Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Chief Justice of India, Supreme Court, of India, Fax:+91 11 233 83792, Email: supremecourt@nic.in

· Justice (Retd.) H.L. Dattu,Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission of India, Fax +91 11 24651329. Email: chairnhrc@nic.in

· Mr. KhaleelAhmad, Focal Point on Human Rights Defenders, National Human RightsCommission of India, Email: hrd-nhrc@nic.in

· H.E. Mr. Rajiv Kumar Chander, Ambassador, Permanent Mission of India to theUnited Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Fax: +41 22 906 86 96, Email: mission.india@ties.itu.int

· H.E. Mr. Manjeev Singh Puri, Embassy of India to theEuropean Union, Belgium and Luxembourg in Brussels, Belgium, Fax: +32 2 6489638/ +32 2 6451869

Please also write to the diplomatic mission or embassyof India located in your country.

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Geneva-Paris, July 11, 2019

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of thisappeal in your reply.

The Observatory forthe Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory) was created in 1997by the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and FIDH. The objective ofthis programme is to prevent or remedy situations of repression against human rightsdefenders. OMCT and FIDH are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European UnionHuman Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented by international civil society

[1] Lawyers Collective isbased in New Delhi with its registered office in Mumbai and is a group oflawyers with a mission to empower and change the status of marginalised groupsthrough the effective use of law, and an engagement in human rights advocacy,legal aid and litigation. Moreover, both Ms. Jaisingand Mr. Grover are internationally renowned human right lawyers who have a longhistory of engaging with the United Nations (UN) system. Ms. Jaising is aformer member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination AgainstWomen (CEDAW) and Mr. Grover is a former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right toHealth.

[2] A form ofpeaceful demonstration, consisting in sitting and fasting at the doorstep of anoffender until death or the demand is granted.

[3] Section 13 (2) - “Any public servant who commits criminal misconductshall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall be not less thanone year but which may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine”,read with Section 13 (1) (d) “A public servant is said to commit the offence ofcriminal misconduct, if he,- (i) by corrupt or illegal means, obtains forhimself or for any other person any valuable thing or pecuniary advantage; or(ii) by abusing his position as a public servant, obtains for himself or forany other person any valuable thing or pecuniary advantage; or (iii) whileholding office as a public servant, obtains for any person any valuable thingor pecuniary advantage without any public interest”.