The Union government has frozen the licence that enabled the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), a think tank with which some of the most prominent public figures in the country were and are associated, to receive foreign funds.

The public policy think tank’s Foreign Contribution (Regulation) registration has been suspended by the Union home ministry for 180 days over alleged violation of laws.

The FCRA registration is mandatory for any NGO or association to receive foreign funds. With the suspension of its licence, the CPR will not be able to receive any funds from abroad.

The CPR also cannot utilise the existing foreign donations without the home ministry’s clearance.

The CPR’s governing body is now chaired by Meenakshi Gopinath, a political scientist who taught at Jawaharlal Nehru University and was the principal of Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi.

The president and chief executive is Yamini Aiyar, and the members of the board include former foreign secretary Shyam Saran, according to the CPR website. Former members of the board include former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Chief Justice of India Y.V. Chandrachud, whose son Justice D.Y Chandrachud is the current Chief Justice of India.

Yamini is the daughter of former Congress minister Mani Shankar Aiyar.

The CPR was earlier headed by academic Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a vocal critic of the Modi government. The CPR’s partners and donors include reputable international and national organisations ranging from government institutions tonon-profits, educational institutions and civil society.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the University of Pennsylvania, the World Resources Institute and the Duke University are among the donors, officials said.

Sources said the Union home ministry ordered the suspension of the licence after receiving prima facie inputs that suggested the CPR had flouted FCRA laws.

The ministry has so far not issued a formal statement on the specific nature of the violation by the CPR. Sources in the Union homeministry said the CPR had violated funding norms.

“After suspending the licence, a thorough inquiry is underway and further decisions will be taken within six months. The organisation has been allegedly using its FCRA funds for purposes other than the educational programmes for which the licence was granted,” a source said.

The action came five months after the income tax department conducted “surveys” on the premises of the CPR and also at the offices of the international charity organisation Oxfam India and the Independent Public Spirited Media Foundation in the capital.

In a statement on Wednesday, the CPR said it got intimation from the home ministry that its registration “has been suspended for a period of 180 days”.

The organisation said it would “explore all avenues of recourse available to us”.

“We are in complete compliance with the law and are routinely scrutinised and audited by government authorities, including the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. We have annual statutory audits and all our annual audited balance sheets are in the public domain. There is no question of having undertaken any activity that is beyond our objects of association and compliance mandated by law,” the CPR said in a statement.

“Our work and institutional purpose is to advance our constitutional goals and protect constitutional guarantees. We are absolutely confident that the matter will be resolved speedily, in fairness and in the spirit of our constitutional values,” it added.

The CPR said it had received several notices from the IT department after its survey in September last year.

“Following due process, detailed and exhaustive responses have been submitted to the department. CPR has and continues to cooperate fully with the authorities.”

The FCRA licence of the CPR was last renewed in 2016 and was due for renewal in 2021. The institution is globally recognised for its academic and policy excellence and fulltime and visiting scholars at the CPR include members of the Niti Aayog, former diplomats, civil servants, members of the Indian Army, journalists and leading researchers, it said.

“The Centre for Policy Research (CPR) is recognised as a not-for-profit society by the Government of India, and contributions to the Centre are tax-exempt. CPR receives grants from the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR), and is a Department of Science and Technology (DST) recognised institution,” the think tank says on its website.

Founded in 1973, the CPR has been one of India’s leading policy research institutions, home to several eminent thinkers and policy practitioners whose contribution to policy in India is well-recognised, the statement said.

“It is an independent, non-partisan institution that conducts its work with complete academic and financial integrity. CPR works with government departments, autonomous institutions, charitable organisations and universities in India and across the globe. The institution’s work is globally recognised for its academic and policy excellence,” the statement said.

Over the past eight years, the Modi government has tightened the rules and procedures for NGOs to receive and use foreign funds. It has cancelled the FCRA licences of hundreds of NGOs on the charge of violating the law’s provisions.

The crackdown has led civil society groups to accuse the government of trying to stifle dissent.