'Foreign donations not an absolute right': Supreme Court upholds amendments to FRA provisions

"The strict regime had become essential because of the past experience of abuse and misutilisation of foreign contribution," the apex court observed while passing the order.

The court made the observation while hearing a petition challenging the amendments which argued to have imposed harsh and excessive restrictions on the NGOs in utilising foreign funds.

New terms will now be applied to receipt and use of foreign donations by NGOs.

"Receiving foreign donation cannot be an absolute or even a vested right," the court said.

It also noted that the theory of foreign contribution influencing national polity is globally recognised.

The Supreme Court had reserved its judgement on Nov 9, 2021.

The writ petitions filed by Noel Harper and Jeevan Jyothi Charitable Trust challenged the amendments saying that they have imposed harsh and excessive restrictions on the NGOs in utilizing foreign funds.

The other petition filed by Vinay Vinayak Joshi has challenged the extension of time allowed by the Ministry of Home Affairs for NGOs to comply with the new FCRA conditions.

The court in its order noted that foreign aid can create the presence of a foreign contributor and influence the policies of the country.

"We find force in the argument that it had become necessary for the Parliament to step in and provide a stringent regime for effectively regulating the inflow and utilisation of foreign contribution," the order said.

Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan appeared for the petitioners and questioned the amendment that requires funds to be transferred to only SBI's main branch in Delhi.

He said, "They (government) say as long as donations from Timbaktoo to Libya comes to SBI main branch ..from there the fund can be transferred to terrorist organisations etc...in this way how is the avowed objective being met? Their issue is utilisation and not receiving."