Foreign funding: SC to hear plea by Cong, BJP on Sept 14

The Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to put for final hearing a plea by the BJP and the Congress against the March 28, 2014, order of the Delhi High Court holding both parties prima facie guilty of violation of provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) for receiving donations from UK-based Vedanta Resources’ subsidiaries.

A bench of Justices J S Khehar and Arun Mishra put the matter for consideration on September 14 and 15, while clarifying to the counsel that no adjournment in the matter would be granted. The Congress as well as the BJP had claimed that the high court had wrongly interpreted the FCRA on a plea by the NGO, Association of Democratic Rights among others.

The parties claimed that Vedanta was owned by an Indian citizen, and its subsidiaries were incorporated here, therefore they were not foreign sources. Since Anil Agarwal and members of his family held more than 50% share in the company and any contribution made by them would not be deemed to be contributions from a foreign source, they claimed.

“The High Court did not appreciate that the petitioner and other political parties have not violated any provisions of Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976 or 2010, as the donations made by these two even though Vedanta Resources Plc is a foreign company for the purposes of Section 591 of the Companies Act,” the Congress had said.