Greenpeace said it had received an order from the southern Tamil Nadu state’s Registrar of Societies department summarily announcing the cancellation of its registration as a society.
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It said for the last 18 months, Greenpeace India has endured repeated attempts at suppression through different government authorities.
“This is an extension of the deep intolerance for differing viewpoints that sections of this government seem to harbor”, Gopal said in a statement.
According to Indian media, a secret report by the main intelligence agency warned that delays to key development projects being sought by Greenpeace and other activist groups could knock up to three percentage points off India’s annual growth rate.
The order, however, allows Greenpeace India to file an appeal against the order with the Inspector General of Registration, Chennai.
U Shanmugasundaram, District Registrar, Chennai, in his order dated November 4, 2015, said that fraudulent financial dealings committed by the society have been detected by the officials of the registration department.
“We received a letter on Friday morning from the Registrar of Societies, informing us about the cancellation of our registration as a society”.
He accused the Tamil Nadu government of “clearly acting under directions from the Ministry of Home Affairs in Delhi, which has been trying to shut Greenpeace India down for over a year now”. The home ministry said he was sent back as his name was on a government blacklist. “We have faith in the legal process and are confident of overcoming this order”.
That order was overturned by a court in New Delhi before being reinstated by the national government two months ago.
The NGO is a society registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act 1975.
The notice goes on to allege that the NGO is controlled by Stichting Greenpeace Council, Netherlands and is not independent, in contravention to law. It claimed the elected president of Greenpeace India had to be approved by Stichting, and only the approved candidate could be appointed as an executive director to look after functioning of the Indian arm. “We had been served with a show cause notice in June 2015 by the MHA”.
The NGO will now reportedly challenge this order in the Madras high court.
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The ministry had earlier this year alleged that Greenpeace had hurt India’s public and economic interests, frozen several of its bank accounts and revoked its licence to receive foreign funds.
