SC notice to Centre on plea challenging change in law to allow foreign donations to parties

The Supreme Court today sought a response from the Centre on a plea alleging that the recent amendments to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 have opened the doors to unlimited political donations from foreign firms.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud issued a notice to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on the plea filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms and others and tagged it with other similar pending petitions.

The top court was hearing the PIL of the association which challenged that the amendments to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 through the Finance Act, 2016 and the Finance Act, 2018.

"The said amendments have been made in an attempt to overturn the judgment passed by the Delhi High Court (in a PIL filed by petitioners herein) holding the two major political parties (the BJP and the Congress) guilty of taking foreign funding, against which the special leave petitions were dismissed by this court.

"The said amendments have opened doors to unlimited political donations from foreign companies and thereby legitimizing financial contributions received from foreign sources," the plea, filed through advocates Prashant Bhushan and Pranav Sachdeva, read.

Earlier, the top court had taken note of two similar petitions on the issue in 2014 and 2015 respectively.