I did not know that this visit would inaugurate the longest battle of my life’: Henri Tiphagne on 14 years of fighting the FCRA regime
MAY 21, 2012, was the day. It was a Monday morning, and like any other busy day in our office, our colleagues were darting through the corridors. Advocates rushing to the courts, fact-finding teams getting geared up for their field investigation, our human rights education team returning from training and our Help Line unit, as always, busy with their clients. I, like any other day, was trying to hold everything together.

We had visitors from the Ministry of Home Affairs (‘MHA’) who had stepped in after due notice to inspect our financial records. I did not know that this visit would inaugurate the longest battle of my life. They pored over our files, asked questions and took notes for the next four days, which followed hundreds of representations, court hearings and negotiations. Little did I know then that this would stretch over 14 years of my life and for 20,000 more organisations, like mine, within the next decade.

From individual struggle to organisation

In the 1980s, I had little interest in funded civil society organisations. Instead, I preferred the individual struggles and solidarity of grassroots movements. As a young lawyer then, I began my professional career specialising in criminal law under senior criminal lawyer, Mr. D. Sathosham. I occasionally engaged with the then earlier avatar of the present Legal Services Authority, assisting underprivileged prisoners in their bail and other rights-based issues. Early on, my association with People’s Union for Civil Liberties (‘PUCL’) started when I was heading its Madurai District unit and participating in protest rallies alongside Justice V. M. Tarkunde, K. G. Kannabiran and other figures who deeply inspired me, leading me to eventually take up the role of the State Secretary of the Tamil Nadu PUCL under the Presidentship of Mr. K.V. Shankaran

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