Firms funding Congress, BJP not foreign companies:Centre to HC

The Centre today told the Delhi High Court that companies, including Vedanta Resources Plc, which were named in a PIL as foreign companies and funding Congress and BJP, allegedly in violation of Foreign Currency Regulation (FCA) Act, do not come under the scope of 'foreign company'.
Filing an affidavit before the bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Indermeet Kaur, the Home Ministry said it has obtained information pertaining to the status of the six out of seven companies from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the Foreign Division and also from the concerned companies about their status under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA).

"After perusing the records, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs came to the conclusion that none of the companies listed in the account statements was found to have established a place of business in India which was informed... since the companies had not established a place of business in India, they did not qualify as foreign company as per the Companies Act," the affidavit said.
According to the affidavit, M/s Vedanta the Madras Aluminium Co. Ltd, M/s Hyatt Regency, M/s Win Medicare (pvt) Ltd, M/s Adani Wilmer KLtd, M/s Sterlite Industries India Ltd are not foreign companies, where as M/s DOW Chemical International Pvt Ltd is a foreign company.

In addition, the Ministry said the informations about M/s Sesa Goa Lts is yet to come.
On the last date of hearing, the court had issued a notice to both Congress and BJP and sought their responses on a PIL, filed by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms through advocate Prashant Bhushan, seeking a direction for a CBI or SIT probe against them for allegedly accepting donations from subsidiaries of Britain-based Vedanta Group.