The Supreme Court refused to direct the transfer of money collected under the PM CARES Fund set up for COVID-19 relief to the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).
The Supreme Court refused to direct the transfer of money collected under the PM CARES Fund set up for COVID-19 relief to the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).
The Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subshash Reddy, and MR Shah held that contributions made to PM CARES Fund are voluntary and entirely different from the NDRF. The Court held:
“The funds collected in the PM CARES Fund are entirely different funds which are funds of a public charitable trust and there is no occasion for issuing any direction to transfer the said funds to the NDRF.”
The court rejected the prayer of petitioner for transfer for all the funds of PM CARES to NDRF. Court noted that there was no statutory prohibition regarding government utilizing the NDRF towards COVID-19 relief nor was there any statutory prohibition on individuals or institutions from making a contribution towards NDRF.
“Any contribution, grant of any individual or institution is not prohibited to be credited into the NDRF and it is still open for any person or institution to make contribution to the NDRF in terms of Section 46(1)(b) of the Act, 2005. The contribution by any person or by any institution in PM CARES Fund is voluntary and it is open for any person or institution to make contribution to the PM CARES Fund.”
The Court dismissed the petition and was in the opinion that the NDRF is a statutory fund set up to assist States should their expenditure be in excess of the SDRF amount. This fund statutorily is required to be audited by the CAG. On the other hand, the PM CARES fund was set up as a public charitable trust when the COVID-19 pandemic hit India.
Whereas the funds received by PM CARES are totally voluntary donations without any budget support or allocation neither government credits money to it. The court observed that:
“After outbreak of pandemic COVID-19, need of having a dedicated national fund with objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to provide relief to the affected, a fund was created by constituting a trust with Prime Minister as an exofficio Chairman of PM CARES Fund, with other exofficio and nominated Trustees of the Fund.”
The further petition prayed to establish a National Plan for COVID-19, the court was in vision that the plan prepared by the government is sufficient to cater the pandemic.
“National Plan, 2019 have already been there in place supplemented by various orders and measures taken by competent authorities under Disaster Management Act, 2005, there is no occasion or need to issue any direction to Union of India to prepare a fresh National Plan for COVID-19.”
The audit mechanism of the PM CARES was also questioned, that the NDRF has to be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) while “PM CARES is audited by some private auditor”. A strong argument was made for the PM CARES Fund to at least be audited by the CAG.
It was earlier revealed that the PM CARES fund doesn’t come in the scope of a “public authority” through an RTI. Therefore it gets shied from the ambit of the RTI Act. Hence no citizen can obtain any details pertaining to the PM CARES fund via RTI.
