FCRA Bill sent to JPC amid Opposition protests; Rijiju challenges parties to cite provision against minorities
The Lok Sabha passed a motion referring the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 to a 31-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed scrutiny, amid strong objections in the House.
The committee will comprise 21 members from the Lok Sabha (nominated by the Speaker) and 10 members from the Rajya Sabha (nominated by the Chairman).
The committee has been asked to submit its report to the Lok Sabha by the last day of the first week of the 2026 Winter Session of Parliament.
Objections were raised that certain provisions of the bill could disproportionately affect minority-run and faith-based organisations receiving foreign contributions; the government maintained no provision specifically targets any religious community and offered the JPC route for detailed examination.
Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (FCRA)
The FCRA, 2010 (replacing the FCRA, 1976) regulates the acceptance and utilisation of foreign contributions by individuals, associations, and companies in India, to ensure such funds are not used to affect national interest, sovereignty, or public order. It is administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) through the FCRA registration and monitoring system.
Key Details
- Requires prior registration (or "prior permission") with the MHA before an entity can legally receive foreign contributions; registration is renewable every five years.
- All foreign contributions must be received only in a designated FCRA account at the specified branch of the State Bank of India, New Delelhi (as amended in 2020).
- The 2020 amendment reduced the permissible administrative expenditure cap from 50% to 20% of the total foreign contribution received in a financial year.
- The 2020 amendment also barred the sub-granting/transfer of foreign contributions between FCRA-registered entities and made Aadhaar mandatory for all office bearers/key functionaries of the recipient organisation.
- Registration can be suspended for up to 180 days or cancelled by the Central Government for violations; a cancelled entity cannot re-register for three years.
The 2026 Amendment Bill further modifies this existing 2010 (as amended in 2020) framework; the specific new provisions are the substance the JPC has been tasked to scrutinise before the bill returns to the Lok Sabha.
Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) — Mechanism and Precedents
A Joint Parliamentary Committee is an ad hoc committee constituted by a motion passed in one House and concurred to by the other, to examine a specific bill, scam, or policy matter in detail with representation from both Houses. It is distinct from Standing Committees, which are permanent, subject-wise, and reconstituted annually/periodically.
Key Details
- JPCs are not provided for by name in the Constitution; they derive from parliamentary Rules of Procedure (Lok Sabha Rules on Joint Committees) and precedent.
- Composition ratio (here 21:10, Lok Sabha:Rajya Sabha) is decided by the referring motion itself, and members are nominated by the respective presiding officers.
- Referring a bill to a JPC (rather than proceeding to a vote) is a procedural route used to build cross-party consensus or defuse controversy — recently used, for instance, for the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, whose JPC also had a similarly structured composition and winter-session-linked reporting deadline.
- A JPC's report is recommendatory; Parliament retains discretion to accept, modify, or reject its recommendations when the bill is reintroduced for passage.
The government's decision to send the FCRA Amendment Bill to a JPC — rather than push it to an immediate vote — mirrors the same procedural playbook used for other contested bills, aimed at examining opposition concerns (including on provisions perceived to affect minority-run and faith-based organisations) through a bipartisan committee before final passage.
Regulation of NGOs and Foreign Funding — Constitutional and Policy Context
Regulation of foreign contributions intersects with the freedom of association under Article 19(1)(c) and the state's power to impose "reasonable restrictions" under Article 19(4) in the interests of sovereignty and integrity of India, public order, or morality.
Key Details
- The Supreme Court, in Noel Harper v. Union of India (2022), upheld the constitutional validity of the FCRA 2020 amendments (including the ban on sub-granting and the SBI-account mandate), holding that there is no fundamental right to receive foreign contributions and that reasonable regulation is permissible.
- MHA data periodically shows large numbers of FCRA registrations being cancelled or allowed to lapse for non-compliance (e.g., non-filing of annual returns), a recurring point of Opposition and civil-society criticism regarding the Act's stringency.
- Faith-based and minority-run charitable organisations are significant recipients of foreign contributions in India, which is the backdrop for concerns that amendments could disproportionately affect them, even where the text is facially neutral.
The Opposition's allegation that the bill's provisions could adversely affect minority institutions, and the government's counter-challenge to identify any explicitly discriminatory clause, sit within this broader constitutional debate on the limits of Article 19(1)(c) freedom of association versus state regulation of foreign funding.
- JPC composition for the FCRA Amendment Bill, 2026: 31 members total — 21 from Lok Sabha, 10 from Rajya Sabha.
- Reporting deadline: last day of the first week of the 2026 Winter Session of Parliament.
- FCRA administrative expenditure cap (post-2020 amendment): 20% of foreign contributions received in a financial year (reduced from 50%).
- FCRA registration validity: 5 years, renewable.
- Designated bank for foreign contributions: State Bank of India, New Delhi Main Branch.
- Key Supreme Court precedent on FCRA validity: Noel Harper v. Union of India (2022).