'These are foreign orgs. What's our jurisdiction?': HC asks while junking a plea on crowdfunding

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a public interest litigation seeking probe into several foreign organizations that collected crowd funds under the garb of helping India amid the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic in April 2021 and allegedly siphoned off the same for funding terrorist activities, legal news website Live Law reported.

The Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla observed that the government is cognizant of the issue and thus, no case is made out for judicial interference in the matter.

It observed, "Learned counsel the petitioner has herself tendered in Court communication received from Enforcement Directorate on 7 March 2022, requiring the petitioner to provide the relevant documents on the basis of which the petitioner has made the aforesaid claims. Counsel submits that the details have been provided to the ED. There is no reason for this court to assume that the Central government and its agencies are not alive to this problem, particularly when ED has sought the Petitioner's response."

It added that no directions are called for at this stage.

The petitioner had also sought for a direction to the Centre to formulate guidelines laying down the criteria, condition and procedure for fund-raising and to ensure continuous regulation of working of such fund raising organizations and platforms.