The Karnataka High Court has dismissed a notice issued by the Enforcement Directorate in 2018 under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and the Information Technology Act for the blocking of Amnesty International India Pvt Ltd’s bank account.
The Karnataka High Court’s single-judge bench dismissed the October 26, 2018 notice for blocking Amnesty India’s account because it was only valid for 60 days.
Amnesty International India and the Indians for Amnesty International Trust have petitioned the High Court in response to the ED letter. The case was disposed of on Friday.
According to a report by the Indian Express, the senior counsel for the NGO said that the notice issued by the ED under section 37 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, read with section 132 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, is only valid for 60 days. Amnesty stated in the HC that sub-section 8A of the IT Act stipulates sixty days, and there is no mechanism for exceeding sixty days from the date of the ruling.
In a petition filed by Greenpeace India Society, the NGO referenced an order issued in February 2019 by a single-judge bench of the Karnataka High Court. The HC decided in the Greenpeace case in 2019 that the ED’s notification issued under sections 37 of FEMA and 132 of the IT Act lost its force after 60 days. The decision was based on Supreme Court decisions in comparable cases.
During the last decade, the ED has blocked several Amnesty accounts under FEMA and PMLA rules. Following the freezing of its bank accounts by the Enforcement Directorate, Amnesty International decided to close its headquarters in India in 2020.
The ED searched Amnesty India properties in Bengaluru in October 2018 in connection with a case in which the Amnesty International India Foundation Trust was suspected of attempting to avoid Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) laws after being denied registration under FCRA by the MHA.
