Central Government declines renewal of foreign funding registration to Mother Teresa’s charity

By Legal Wires 3 Minutes Read

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has refused to renew the foreign funding registration for Missionaries of Charity (MoC), a Catholic religious congregation set up by Saint Teresa of Calcutta, on grounds of adverse inputs in their application record.

It had been alleged that the Central Government has illegitimately frozen all the MoC’s bank accounts leaving almost 22,000 patients & employees without food & medicines. The Ministry of Home Affairs issued a statement clarifying that it had only refused renewal of the missionary organisation’s registration and denied claims that it had frozen the organisation’s bank accounts. Registration under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) is necessary for any association to receive foreign funding or donations.

The MoC has issued a clarification in a letter stating:

We would like to clarify that the FCRA registration of Missionaries of Charity has neither been suspended nor cancelled. Further, there is no freeze ordered by the Ministry of Home Affairs on any of our bank accounts. We have been informed that our FCRA renewal application has not been approved. Therefore, as a measure to ensure there is no lapse, we have asked our centres not to operate any of our FC accounts until the matter is resolved.

According to the MoC annual return, its foreign funding receipts for the year 2020-21 stood at ₹751,903,116.67 ($10,042,177.42). Any organisation receiving funding from abroad must comply with the audit requirements under the FCRA and the Foreign Contribution Regulation Rules. It is now open to the MoC to request a review of the MHA’s decision or apply for a fresh registration certificate.