LAWYERS COLLECTIVE Vs. CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present petition filed by "Lawyers Collective", a Society registered under the Societies Registration Act is filed through its authorized signatory Mr. Anand Grover praying for quashing and setting aside FIR No.RC0682019E0004 dated 13/06/2019 registered with CBI Economic Offences Branch, Mumbai. Petitioner No.1 is a Society and Public Trust and the members and trustees of petitioner No.1 include the persons connected with legal profession and it claims to be set up with a philosophy that law is an instrument of social change and petitioner No.1 proclaims that it has striven to protect the fundamental rights of the citizens of this country and has campaigned for bringing in law reforms aimed at protecting civil liberties and promoting socio-economic rights of the people. Petitioner Nos.2 and 3 are practicing senior advocates and claimed to be recipients of accolades on the social front.

(2.) Learned senior counsel Mr. Chinoy representing the petitioners would question the registration of FIR against the petitioners by which apart from the offences under the IPC, the provisions of Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 ("FCRA, 2010") have also been invoked. Mr. Chinoy would invite our attention to the sequence of events leading to the filing of the present FIR and would submit that the petitioner No.1 has been supported by many bilateral and multilateral agencies through foreign contributions and the petitioner No.1 was conferred with Certificate of Registration dated 23/10/2000 under Section 6 of the FCRA, 1976 and on repeal of the said enactment, when the FCRA, 2010 came into force, in terms of proviso appended to Section 11(1) of the FCRA, 2010, the petitioner No.1 was deemed to be registered under the FCRA, 2010. He would thus submit that the contributions received by petitioner No.1 are in confirmity with the requirement of FCRA.

(3.) Learned senior counsel would also submit that perusal of the FIR and on it being accepted on its face value, it does not disclose any offence under the FCRA, 2010. In the background of the facts placed before us, it is prayed that the FIR does not make out any case against the petitioners and does not disclose a cognizable offence at all and applying the para-meters laid down by the Apex Court in Bhajan Lal, it is submitted that it is a fit case for quashing the FIR.