As FCRA restricts NGOs, Supreme Court had agreed that right to associate is not carte blanche for foreign funds

The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Rules, 2026, notified by the Union Home Ministry on June 22, has introduced tougher limits on NGOs to receive foreign donations; these amendments, and the ones before them, source their legality from the Centre’s argument in the Supreme Court that the freedom to form associations do not include a right to receive unbridled foreign funds or to use the money outside ‘permissible activities’ ...