New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said NGOs should not receive foreign funds if the donor does not declare the objectives to be spent and said the center has tightened the purpose of the Regulatory Law on foreign contributions (FCRA) by not insisting on such conditions.
Judge Am Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar said in Section 8 of the law, disclosures must be made at first regarding the goals that had contributed and asked the center to clarify the issue.
Section 8 says everyone who is registered and provides a certificate or given earlier permission under the law and accepts foreign contributions, will take advantage of the contribution to the necessities that have been received contributions.
Referring to the section, the bench said the objectives of the contribution must be disclosed and only then the entry of funds was permitted.
Public lawyer Tushar Mehta argues that an NGO can use funds for the activities they registered which can be in the form of social, cultural, religious purposes.
But the bench said that even in cases where an NGO was registered to carry out various activities, organizations were bound to spend foreign contributions only for the purpose where money was transferred.
It is said that in such cases, an NGO must maintain a separate account to carry out various activities.
“You dilute the entire process and the purpose of the action.
Disclosures must be made by donors at first regarding what their contribution is made.
The contribution base must be disclosed only then the inflow.
This is another problem that you do not follow.
We need a clear holder from the government about the problem This, “said the bench to the General Lawyer.
While justifying the central decision to change the action to regulate foreign contributions to NGOs, Mehta believes this is to stop the NGO from making foreign fund chain transfers.
He said that there was an intelligence bureau input on NGOs misused funds and they could not claim to have fundamental rights to receive funds from abroad.
However, while the center also searched for higher fund accountability, the court asked for donors to achieve the destination.