Unnath Pinto - Unrenewed FCRA Licences & Facets Of Development: A Critical Study

The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act was introduced in 1976 to regulate the funding from foreign sources to NGOs, CSOs, and NPOs functioning in India. A lot of these organizations function under the Constitutional Provisions conferred by Article 26, upholding religious values and charitable intentions. However, the 2020 amendment to the act seemed to create havoc due to its draconian provisions and pedantic criteria for institutions to obtain licenses. This research article presents an interdisciplinary study encompassing Legal aspects along with tangents of Social science by analyzing the subject matter based on dimensions of development. This study aims to explore the effect of the Government's move to cancel the licenses of various charitable organizations without any reason or by stating irrelevant reasons with no support under the pretext of FCRA. Qualitative data via doctrinal study in the form of various articles have been employed for this study. Furthermore, views have been countered and supported by the aid of constitutional provisions. The study succeeds in finding that misuse of FCRA by the Government acts as a deterrent to various dimensions of development, like social, cultural, and ethical. It is a peril at the door and a wake-up call as it threatens the preambulatory value of secularism and the rights of cultural identities to regulate their affairs. This paper identifies the cognition behind FCRA and its requirements, but also simultaneously contests the abuse of the same by the stakeholders against the minorities and vulnerable groups.