The Supreme Court on Wednesday said a stronger regulatory regime was needed for non-governmental organisations in India, The Indian Express reported. A bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur said it would consider referring the matter to the Law Commission of India to bring in an appropriate law that will regulate the flow of money to the nearly 31 lakh NGOs in the country.

While hearing a petition by advocate ML Sharma, the court observed that less than 10% of NGOs in the country submitted the details of their accounts with the registrar of societies. “There is no central legislation to ensure accountability,” the bench said. “Anyone can register a society and it becomes an NGO. Unless some mechanism is put in centrally, nothing can be done,” it added.

Sharma’s petition claimed that 80% of NGOs in India receive foreign funds, The Hindu reported. The advocate claimed that “retired government employees and politicians run these NGOs drawing on their influence”. The court asked senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi to assist it in finding an approach to deal with the issue.

Records filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation with the Supreme Court show that India has one non-profit organisation for every 400 people, with 76,566 being registered in New Delhi alone. Kerala, Punjab and Rajasthan have no legal process in place for the submission of account returns, according to The Hindu.