YUVASANSKRITI

  The Foreign Contribution Regulation Amendment Bill, 2020 was introduced by Nithyanand Rai, Minister of State, Home Affairs on the floor of the Lok Sabha on 21st September which was subsequently passed by both houses of Parliament. This bill does make very distinctive changes to the 2010 version introduced by the then UPA government which primarily defines the role of the government in regulating the acceptance or utilization of foreign funds by individuals and organizations. Although these amendments may just appear as another routine legal update exercise it will surely have ground impact affecting the nexus between foreign donors and organizations in India, having vested interests against the country. . The amendments There were 10 amendments moved against the current legislation. Here are some pertinent and important ones: Firstly, under this amendment NGOs can only spend 20% of the foreign funds received for administrative expenses of the organizations. Previously, this upper...

  In Part III of the Indian Constitution, which is known as its Magna Carta, are enshrined the fundamental rights of every citizen of India. It is the State’s duty to protect these rights and in case of a failure on its part, the aggrieved citizen can claim their right by filing a writ petition under   Article 32   or   226 , thereby warranting a judicial remedy. This brings us to a fundamental question – as per  Article 12 , does the judiciary come under the gamut of the definition of ‘State’? Although this question is under considerable debate, the Supreme Court at various instances has held that courts are not the ‘State’ while discharging their judicial functions, but may be considered so while exercising ‘non-judicial’ or administrative functions. It is thus necessary to examine various facets of the argument. The Article 12 conundrum According to  Article 12  of the Constitution of India, the ‘State’ includes the Central and State Governments, Pa...