JPC Members Press Centre on Asset Takeover, Foreign Fund Rules in FCRA Amendment Bill

Members of Parliament's Joint Committee examining the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026, raised a series of questions at the committee's first meeting, with ruling party members seeking details on how foreign contributions are used and Opposition members focusing on provisions that deal with assets when an organisation's FCRA registration is cancelled.

The provision at the centre of the Opposition's concerns relates to a proposed "designated authority". Under the Bill, if an organisation's Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) certificate is cancelled, surrendered, or lapses automatically, the foreign contributions it received, and all assets created from those contributions, would vest in a government-appointed designated authority. The provision does not require a prior hearing or a judicial determination.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), in its submission to the committee, said the proposed amendments are intended to make the use of foreign contributions more transparent and accountable.

Ministry representatives told the committee that the idea of a custodian for such assets is not new to the law. The existing legislation provides for a "prescribed authority", which, under a notification dated November 5, 2018, is the Additional Chief Secretary or Principal Secretary (Home) of the concerned State or Union Territory. The MHA argued that this arrangement has practical shortcomings: there is no deadline for such custodianship, leaving the prescribed authority a "passive custodian" unable to take "substantive decisions on assets". There is also, it said, no standard procedure for taking possession of assets, maintaining inventories, or separating assets created from foreign contributions from those funded domestically.

Officials further said that prolonged custodianship can leave States facing budgetary and manpower constraints in running vested institutions such as schools, hospitals and orphanages. The existing law, they noted, is silent on the final disposal of assets and on how places of worship are to be treated.

Opposition members, including the DMK's P. Wilson and the Trinamool Congress's Menaka Guruswamy, argued that property cannot be taken away without a prior hearing, citing Article 300A of the Constitution, which states that no person shall be deprived of property save by authority of law.

The MHA's presentation also drew criticism for listing foreign contributions received by different religious groups and pointing out that a majority of the funds were received by Christian organisations. Members questioned the Ministry's rationale for separating contributions under religious heads.

Under the existing FCRA framework, organisations must register with the MHA or obtain prior permission to receive foreign funds, receive such contributions in a designated bank account, and use them only for the purposes for which they are registered. The law also governs the renewal of registration and the consequences of cancellation or lapse.

The FCRA was enacted in 1976, at a time of Cold War rivalry, when there was deep suspicion of Western influence and heightened concern about threats to India's sovereignty and democratic institutions. Before 1976, non-governmental organisations receiving foreign funds operated under general laws such as the Societies Registration Act, the Trusts Act and the Companies Act, with no centralised system for monitoring foreign contributions. Oversight was largely limited to tax and foreign exchange compliance, which did not address national security concerns.

Drawing on this history, the MHA described the proposed amendment as, at its core, a national security legislation.

Parliamentary committees examine Bills clause by clause and submit reports with recommendations. Such recommendations are advisory, and the government is not bound to accept them. For now, the questions raised at the first meeting indicate that the committee's scrutiny will cover both the scope of the proposed designated authority and the manner in which data on foreign contributions is presented to it.