'A Leopard Won't Change Its Spots' HC Says FCRA Certificate Can't Be Granted To Organisations Engaged In 'Religious Conversion'

Chennai: Contending a leopard won’t change its spots, a Division Bench of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has said organisations engaged in converting people of one religious faith to another shall be denied registration under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

“Religious organisations, whose activities would not affect the nation’s secular fabric and social amity, are entitled to obtain FCRA.....One cannot forget the fact that Christianity is a messianic religion. Their theological and religious mission is to bring everyone within the fold of Jesus Christ. There is a saying ‘a leopard will not change its spots’. Unlike Hinduism, which is inclusive, the Abrahamic religions are inherently exclusive. The devout Jews, Christians and Muslims believe that theirs is the one true and complete revelation because that is what their Holy books say of themselves,” a bench of Justices G R Swaminathan and M D Sumathi said.

Court explains FCRA provisions

Passing orders on a Civil Miscellaneous Appeal filed by Kanzeon Public Charitable Trust in Kodaikanal, which was denied the FCRA certificate, the judges said Section 12 of the FCRA bars only an unregistered religious organisation from accepting foreign contributions. “An organisation having a definite religious programme is entitled to apply for a certificate of registration from the Central Government under Sections 11 and 12 of the Act. But one has to make a clean breast of everything. One cannot keep any card up one’s sleeve. This is no game of hide and seek,” the bench said.

In the instant case, the appellant claimed the trust had established a Zen Meditation Centre at Kodaikanal and its activities cannot be labelled as religious.

However, counsel for the Central Government submitted that the author of the trust was an ordained Christian priest, Rev. Fr. Ama Samy SJ. The policy of the Central Government is to check the inflow of foreign funds that may be deployed for carrying out conversion and other activities which would harm the secular fabric of the country.

Court examines trust's status

The judges said, on the own showing of the appellant, they are a religious organisation. The authority rightly states that Zen Buddhism is a variant of Mahayana Buddhist School. Every Buddhist school will come under the broad umbrella of Buddhism. Zen can be no exception. “Since the appellant’s application did not correctly identify its nature as religious, the application was rightly negatived,” the judges held.

Authoring the verdict, Justice Swaminathan wrote: “Zen philosophy is of Chinese origin. Organisations like the appellant trust cannot therefore claim any right to be registered under FCRA. We are a pluralist nation. Unlike the USA, we are not a melting pot but a salad bowl, a beautiful metaphor credited to Justice Ruma Pal. This status quo would be upset, if one religious group gains ascendancy.”

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Bench clarifies its observations

However, they added: “We hasten to clarify that we do not accuse the appellant of having any such agenda.....Though the applicant is engaged in religious programmes, they wrongly projected themselves as non-religious. That is why, the respondent authority had to say ‘Illa Samy’ (No) to Rev. Fr. Ama Samy (which name literally translates as ‘Yes’),” the court said.