FCRA-registered NGOs aggrieved by MHA can file review pleas online from Sep

Any NGO registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act and aggrieved by a Union Home Ministry order, including suspension or cancellation of registration, can file a revision plea online before the home secretary starting September 1.

According to the law, all NGOs receiving foreign funds have to be registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA).

An official notification said the revision application can be filed within a year from the date on which the order in question was communicated to the aggrieved NGO registered under the FCRA.

In its revision application, the aggrieved NGO must mention why it is seeking a revision, include supporting documents, if any, along with a fee of Rs 3,000 payable through the payment gateway specified by the central government.

Earlier, this fee was Rs 1,000 and payable by a demand draft or banker's cheque.

Officials said the revision application, which was earlier required to be filed on a plain paper and sent to the Union home secretary, must now be filed online only in the interest of transparency.

Applications will no longer be accepted in the physical form from September 1.

Any organisation that wants to file an application for the revision of an order passed by the competent authority may upload a scanned copy of its application on the FCRA web portal (https://fcraonline.nic.in/) under main heading "Services under FCRA" and sub-heading "Revision Application against Section 32, FCRA 2010".

There will be no need to send a physical copy of the revision application or any related document to the home ministry, officials said.

The government has cancelled the FCRA registration of nearly 1,900 NGOs for violating various provisions of the law in the last five years.

There were 22,762 FCRA-registered organisations till the end of December 2021.