Noel Harper case
Also called: Noel Harper v. Union of India (2022) · Topic: Civil Society, Pressure Groups, NGOs and Self-help Groups · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Noel Harper v. Union of India (2022) is a Supreme Court judgment that upheld the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Act 2020. The Court held that there is no fundamental right to receive foreign contributions. Parliament may regulate foreign funding, and may even ban it. The case matters because it settles the limits of NGOs' freedom of association under Article 19(1)(c) where foreign money is involved.
Example
The 2020 amendment barred sub-granting, meaning passing foreign money on to other NGOs. It cut the cap on administrative expenses from 50% to 20% and required funds to come only into an SBI New Delhi Main Branch account. The Court upheld these rules. It allowed office-bearers to use an Indian passport for identification in place of Aadhaar.
Don't confuse with
- D.A.V. College Trust case (2019): it held that NGOs substantially funded by the government are "public authorities" under the RTI Act. It is about government funding and RTI, not foreign funding.