Supreme Court cautions NGOs, warns criminal prosecution for not maintaining balance sheets

A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Jagdish Singh Khehar was hearing a plea filed by apex court lawyer Manohar Lal Sharma stating that out of a total of 32 lakh NGOs approximately, only 3 lakh filed their balance sheets.

Author: ANI

Published: January 10, 2017, 4:22 PM IST

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https://www.india.com/news/india/supreme-court-cautions-ngos-warns-criminal-prosecution-for-not-maintaining-balance-sheets-1751257/ Copy

फाइल फोटो

New Delhi, Jan. 10 :  The Supreme Court on Tuesday rapped the Centre for failing to place a regulatory mechanism to monitor the funds received and their utilisation by all the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) across India.  A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Jagdish Singh Khehar was hearing a plea filed by apex court lawyer Manohar Lal Sharma stating that out of a total of 32 lakh NGOs approximately, only 3 lakh filed their balance sheets.

The apex court in its order made it clear that those NGOs who did not file their balance sheets and misused the public funds and used it for other purposes would have to face action, including civil and criminal prosecution.  The Bench has directed the Central government to prepare an audit for all the NGOs across India.

The bench also asked whether General Financial Rules 2005, made by Ministry of Finance, were complied with or not.  The apex court has directed the Central government to take action in this regard against those  NGOs.  Meanwhile, the Bench has fixed the matter for further hearing till April 5.