NEW DELHI: The Madras high court on Friday stayed the government order cancelling Greenpeace India’s registration, observing that the Tamil Nadu Registrar of Societies (RoS) had not followed principles of natural justice.
The Tamil Nadu RoS had cancelled the registration of Greenpeace India — the environmental NGO that has been campaigning against air pollution and the unsustainable use of natural resources in India — earlier this month.
After getting the court’s order, the green NGO in a statement, quoting its lawyer, said that the high court granted an "unconditional stay of the cancellation of registration".
Reacting to the order, Priya Pillai of Greenpeace India said, "We were confident the courts would agree that Greenpeace is on sound legal footing and has done nothing wrong, notwithstanding the government’s ridiculous allegations of fraud in this instance. Our accounts are an open book and on our website for all to inspect".
The NGO said that the latest court order was the sixth time in the last year-and-a-half that Greenpeace and its activists have succeeded against multiple attempts to restrict its operations and funding, as well as to shut it down. "The courts have consistently found to be in favour of Greenpeace India", it said.
Pillai said, "We draw tremendous strength from victories like these, as they prove that we are secure in both, our mandate for a green and peaceful future, as well as our constituency of lakhs of Indian supporters.
"As a people powered organisation, instead of fighting and winning legal battles, we would much rather continue to contribute to solve India’s serious development challenges – air pollution, disappearing forests, the need for safe food and clean electricity for all. Surely, solving these problems is part of the government’s agenda too. We’d like to once again ask them to collaborate with civil society on these issues".