Home ministry to brief JPC on FCRA bill in first meet on Friday

New Delhi: The Union home ministry will brief a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on September 18 on the proposed amendments to the foreign contributions bill, after stiff objections from several stakeholders forced the government to delay the bill’s passage in Parliament.

JPC chairman and BJP MP from Paschim Champaran Sanjay Jaiswal told HT, “I am open to every suggestion. I will take every member into confidence and we will take all decisions collectively.”

The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026, allows a Centre-appointed authority to take over assets created through foreign donations if an organisation fails to retain its FCRA licence. Many Opposition parties, including the Congress, church bodies and other organisations, have opposed the provision, arguing that it goes against the rights of minority institutions to receive charity.

A senior member of the panel said the home ministry, the nodal ministry for the bill, will brief the JPC on various aspects of the legislation at its first meeting. “The members may also draw up a list of experts and organisations to depose before the panel in subsequent meetings,” the member said on the condition of anonymity.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla constituted the 31-member JPC on September 3 to review the bill, more than three weeks after the proposal to send the controversial legislation to a parliamentary panel was accepted by the Lower House.

The panel has 14 BJP MPs, including Jaiswal and a total of 19 National Democratic Alliance lawmakers. The Telugu Desam Party, Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party have one member each, and the Janata Dal (United) has two members. Three nominated members who had joined the BJP – C Sadanandan Master, former external affairs secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, and criminal lawyer Ujjwal Deorao Nikam – are also part of the panel.

The Congress has five berths. The Samajwadi Party, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) and Indian Union Muslim League have one member each. The Trinamool Congress – both of them loyal to Mamata Banerjee – and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) have two members each in the panel. No member of the rebel TMC group has been included.

The Lok Sabha referred the FCRA amendment bill to the JPC on August 12 for an extensive review after multiple stakeholders, including church bodies, objected to provisions allowing a Centre-appointed authority to take over assets created through foreign donations if an organisation failed to retain its FCRA licence.

First introduced in the Budget session this year but held back at the time, the bill triggered controversy, with the Opposition, several church delegations and three chief ministers of Christian-majority states raising concerns over its provisions.

The amendments seek to establish a designated authority with “a comprehensive framework for vesting, supervision, management and disposal of foreign contribution and assets, including provisional and permanent vesting”.

Under the proposed law, the government can appoint a “designated authority” to take over, manage or sell assets created from foreign funds by a non-governmental organisation whose FCRA licence has been cancelled, suspended or not renewed.

The bill also proposes to do away with Section 15 of the existing Act. The provision currently limits the authority’s power to managing the activities of the organisation, utilising foreign contributions or disposing of assets created from such contributions when adequate funds are not available to run the activity.