Thread by @barandbench

#Breaking Delhi High Court dismisses a PIL by Association for Democratic Reforms demanding constitution of an independent tribunal or committee to oversee the enforcement of #FCRA.
#DelhiHighCourt #ADR @adrspeaks

A Bench of CJ Satish Chandra Sharma and J Subramonium Prasad holds that mere possibility that a statute will not be administered adequately is not ground for the statute to be invalidated or for the Court to supplement its wisdom with the Legislature’s.

“To set up a committee or tribunal is a purely policy decision. The legislature alone has the power to set up a tribunal or committee, under the requisite statute, to adjudicate disputes arising from it...

...If the prayer sought by the Petitioner is allowed, it would essentially be an exercise in judicial legislation, and would be beyond the power of judicial review accorded to this Court.”
#DelhiHighCourt #FCRA @adrspeaks

The bench further said that a direction for setting up a Committee or Tribunal would effectively be an amendment of the FCRA, which is beyond the scope of judicial review by this Court.
#DelhiHighCourt #FCRA @adrspeaks

"Hence, an attempt by a judicial body to set up a tribunal is directly in the teeth of the doctrine of separation of powers."

The court added that the petitioner has failed to place on record any data indicating the number of political parties which have availed of foreign contribution, and have failed to be penalised under the FCRA.
#DelhiHighCourt #ADR #FCRA
@adrspeaks

“The apprehension of the Petitioner that the FCRA may be misused for oblique motives is a bald averment and is entirely unfounded. Courts cannot pass a direction only on hypothesis.”

"Nothing has been placed on record to show that the FCRA is being used selectively against NGOs and other independent organisations as well."

The court concluded that the petition is building entirely on surmises and conjectures and therefore deserves to be dismissed.
#DelhiHighCourt #FCRA #ADR @adrspeaks