India, Sept. 28 -- The Bombay High Court has allowed 'Lawyers Collective', an NGO, and its founders, senior advocates Indira Jaising and Anand Grover, to seek settlement of an alleged Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) offence, holding that the pendency of criminal proceedings cannot stop them from filing a compounding application. The court directed the Ministry of Home Affairs' FCRA wing to provide the details needed to file the application within a week.

A single-bench Justice Milind Jadhav, hearing the matter on Thursday, noted that the charges against the petitioners were restricted to Section 41 of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), which allows certain offences to be compounded under the prescribed procedure....