High profile lawyer is now in the cross-hairs of the Narendra Modi government. India Today has been able to exclusively access the inspection report of the Ministry of Home Affairs, which scrutinised the accounts of Lawyers Collective, a well-known NGO run by former additional solicitor general Indira Jaising. The report has found glaring violations in the manner in which the NGO used the foreign donations received by it.

According to the report, which is exclusively in the possession of India Today, Lawyers Collective received foreign contribution of Rs 32 crore between 2006 and 2014. The MHA inspection team found that a large part of the money was spent on activities which were outside the list of items for which it had been collected. Paying volunteers to organise dharnas, receiving foreign contributions while working for the government, sending foreign donations outside India, spending foreign money to lobby with parliamentarians are some of the main violations listed in the report.

Under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010, an Indian NGO can spend the foreign contribution only for the purpose for which the money has been collected. Lawyers Collective has been given one month by the MHA to reply to the notice, after which legal proceedings will be initiated against the NGO.

According to the report, Rs 88,978 was paid to Delhi Network of Positive People on October 21, 2009 for paying 250 people for holding a dharna outside the Law Ministry. They were paid Rs 200 each for food and conveyance to stage a protest for the HIV/AIDS Bill. To hold paid dharnas by utilising foreign contribution is a violation of Section 8 of the FCRA, 2010.

The report says that a large amount of foreign contribution was spent on air travel, boarding and lodging of Indira Jaising's husband Anand Grover and other members of Lawyers Collective for draft legislation meetings and advocacy with MPs. The report says Rs 13 lakh was spent on media and advocacy with 67 MPs in April 2010 and 99 MPs in August 2010. According to the report, "The utilisation of Foreign Contribution for advocacy indulging in lobbying with MPs and thereby influencing the political process and parliamentary institutions is in clear violation of the letter and spirit of the FCRA Act. Section 3 of the FCRA clearly prohibits acceptance of foreign contribution by any member of any party so that parliamentary institutions are not influenced in any manner."

The report also says that large sums of foreign contribution was used by Lawyers Collective for air travel and other expenses to attend conferences and charity dinners in different parts of the world. This according to the report is a violation of Section 7 of the FCRA as there is no provision for using money received from abroad outside India.

The report also says that Jaising received compensation of Rs 96 lakh while she was the Additional Solicitor General during the UPA 2 government's tenure. The report alleges that Jaising's travel expenses to Nepal and USA were borne by Lawyers Collective from the Foreign Contribution without approval of the MHA. As a high ranking legal officer of the Union government, Jaising was being paid a salary from government funds and receiving foreign contribution without government approval is a violation of Section 3 and 11 of the FCRA.

Lawyers Collective is a public interest NGO, established in 1981, which works in the areas of human rights, legal aid and litigation. According to the NGO's website, it was created to provide expert legal assistance to the underprivileged, especially women and children, workers in the unorganised sector and other members of marginalised groups. Jaising, her Grover, Sanober Keshwaar, Norma Alvares, Justice Suresh, Nilima Dutta and Mihir Desai are the trustees of the NGO.

The action of the MHA is based on a complaint by an activist named Raj Kumar Sharma who alleged that Jaising had been misusing foreign funds received from international organisations like Ford Foundation, Open Society Institute and the Levi Strauss Foundation.

India Today spoke to Grover who's a Trustee of Lawyers Collective. He said, "This is a deliberate and mischievous attempt to tarnish our image. These notices are supposed to be confidential. We have filed a complaint with the Ministry of Home Affairs. We believe in the process of law and will respond to the notice which has been sent to us."

Jaising told India Today, "I am calling for an investigation about how this information got into the public domain. We have been given 30 days to reply to the notice. We are in the process of consulting our accountants and filing an appropriate reply. They have not found anything wrong in our accounts. They have found problems with the way some of the money has been used. This according to us is beyond the purview of the FCRA."

