The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to direct the Centre to transfer the contributions made to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund for battling the COVID-19 pandemic to the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).
The court also said there is no need for a new plan and that one under the National Disaster Management Act, made by the government last November, is enough to deal with Covid-19.
Dismissing a writ petition filed by NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), the bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and M R Shah said: “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 prayer of the petitioner to direct all the funds collected in the PM CARES Fund till date to be transferred to the NDRF is refused.”
The NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), had claimed that PM CARES Fund was set up in violation of the legal mandate under the Disaster Management Act as per which any grant made by any person or institution for the purpose of disaster management should be compulsorily credited to NDRF.
The bench said individuals and corporate houses could still donate to NDRF under the rules, which have been in place since 2015-16. Dismissing the PIL, it said, “Submission that after the new guidelines, it is not possible for any person or institution to make any contribution to the NDRF is, thus, misconceived and incorrect.
Mr. Dave had argued that PM-CARES was not subject to audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General. It was not under “public scrutiny” and contributions to it were “100% tax free”.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal had argued that corporate contributors were lured to donate to PM-CARES because they could avail of corporate social responsibility benefits, which was not possible in the case of donations to States’ funds.