Accepting foreign funds not an absolute right: SC backs Centre's amendments to FCRA
India Today
The Supreme Court has endorsed the Centre's Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Act, 2020, adding that accepting foreign donations "cannot be an absolute or even a vested right".
The Supreme Court of India has affirmed the validity of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Act, 2020, which imposes new conditions on receipt and use of funds by NGOs, besides making it mandatory for them to receive foreign funds only in an SBI account.
A three-judge bench of Judges AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari, and CT Ravi Kumar wrote in the order released on Friday that "the strict regime had become essential because of the past experience of abuse and misutilisation of foreign contributions".
The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2020 was passed in both houses of Parliament in September 2020. It seeks to regulate the process involving acceptance and utilisation of foreign contributions by individuals, associations and companies.
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Petitioners Noel Harper and Jeevan Jyoti Charitable Trust had moved the Apex court, challenging the legislation. In their writ petition, the petitioners had stated that amendments to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 put excessive restrictions on the acceptance of foreign contributions.
A bench of the Supreme Court had in November of last year reserved its judgement in the case.
In its judgement, the Supreme Court noted that foreign contributions "can have a material impact in the matter of socio-economic structure and polity of the country".
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