Its goal of ‘ease of doing business’ did not stop the government from bringing a “strict” regime of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) in 2020 to stop the abuse and misutlisation of foreign funds, the Supreme Court said in a judgment on Friday.
“Ordinarily, convenience of business and persons engaged in doing business must be uppermost in the mind of the Parliament/Legislature to effectuate the goal of ease of doing business... the strict regime became essential because of the past experience of abuse and misutilisation of the ‘foreign contribution’ and cancellation of certificates of as many as 19,000 registered organisations on the ground of being grossly non-compliant,” a three-judge Bench led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar supported the restrictions in 2020 FCRA amendments.
Permitting inflow of foreign contribution, which is a donation, is a matter of policy of the State backed by law, the apex court held. It was open for the State to even have a regime which may completely prohibit receipt of foreign donation, as no right inheres in the citizen to receive foreign donations.
