NGOs can make only online pleas for revision of FCRA orders from Sept 1; fee raised

NEW DELHI: Any NGO or association registered under the Foreign Contributions (Regulation) Act, 2010, that is aggrieved by an order of the Central government — be it suspension or cancellation of registration or any other proceeding under FCRA and rules thereunder — will have to mandatorily file a plea for revision of such order in an electronic form, starting September 1, 2022.
The revision application, which can simply be a scanned copy of the paper application as no electronic format has been pre-specified, must be addressed to the Union Home Secretary and filed within one year from the date on which the order in question was communicated to the aggrieved NGO or the date on which it came to know of it, whichever is earlier.
Justification for revision of the order must be submitted online along with supporting documents, if any, along with a fee of Rs 3000 payable through the payment gateway specified by the Central government. This fee, as per the earlier rules, was Rs 1,000, payable by a demand draft or banker’s cheque.
“The revision plea, which was earlier required to be filed on a plain paper and sent to the Union Home Secretary, must now only be filed electronically in the interest of transparency. Applications in physical mode will no longer be accepted from September 1, 2022,” a home ministry officer told TOI.
The home ministry has, over the past few years, made most of the dealings and transactions with NGOs and associations under FCRA, online to promote transparency and rule out any scope for corruption or harassment of NGOs on account of human interface and indiscretion by staff.
Any organisation that wants to file an application for 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”, sub-heading “Revision Application against Section 32, FCRA 2010”. There shall be no need to send physical copy of revision application or any related document to MHA.