Madras High Court accepts Greenpeace’s petition against threatened shutdown

Press release - July 28, 2015

Chennai, 28 July, 2015: Madras High Court today heard and issued a notice in a petition by Greenpeace India, challenging the Tamil Nadu State officials’ show cause notice to Greenpeace. The Registrar of Societies had served Greenpeace a show cause notice accusing the environmental watchdog of four violations, all of which have been denied by the NGO.

“The charges made against us by the Tamil Nadu Society Registrar are perversely framed and maliciously designed. We have reason to believe that the notice we received from the Tamil Nadu Registrar’s office is politically motivated and orchestrated by the Home Minister,” said Vinuta Gopal, Interim Co-Executive Director of Greenpeace India.

Greenpeace has written to the Registrar several times in regards to the show cause notice, including to request access to the official records (as permitted by the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act 1975) but these have not been granted.

“The potential cancellation of our society’s registration represents a direct threat to the future of Greenpeace India because the society is the legal basis on which our organisation exists. Even as we respond to this latest threat, we’ll continue our campaigns for clean energy and clean air because our passion is campaigning for a better India, not fighting legal battles.” said Ms. Gopal.

Details of these communications can be found in the footnotes below, as are the responses to the allegations against Greenpeace.

For more information, contact:

Anindita Datta Choudhury, , +91 9871515804