Environmental lawyer Ritwick Dutta’s non-profit faces CBI probe over alleged foreign funding violation

New Delhi (India), April 22, 2023: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a case against renowned environmental lawyer Ritwick Dutta and his non-profit organization, Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE), for alleged violations of foreign funding rules.

The CBI has accused Ritwick Dutta of receiving Rs. 41 lakh in foreign contributions from US-based “Earth Justice” in the fiscal year 2014 and creating a LIFE Proprietorship to subsequently receive Rs. 22 crore from the same source from 2016 to 2021.

The funds were purportedly used to carry out legal action against India’s existing and proposed coal projects, a violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), thus harming the country’s national and economic security.

The CBI investigation also revealed that US-based non-profits Earth Justice and the Sandler Foundation had allegedly planned to fund legal activism and anti-coal litigation in India. Furthermore, the European Climate Foundation was found to be routing $120,000 through Earth Justice to support Dutta’s litigation efforts through LIFE, which the CBI claims are not funded by the litigants themselves.

Ritwick Dutta, who has co-authored a book on forest conservation with Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, is a respected environmental lawyer, and his non-profit organization has been instrumental in environmental litigation in India. The allegations against him and his organization have raised concerns within the environmental community about the use of foreign funding in environmental litigation in India.