New Delhi, Nation Now

Money collected under the PM CARES Fund for the coronavirus pandemic need not be transferred to National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), the Supreme Court said today, adding that it cannot direct the government to do so and that funds collected by the PM Cares Fund are entirely different and that these are funds of charitable trusts. The government is free to transfer money to the disaster response fund if it feels appropriate to do so, the top court said.

Any contribution or grant can be credited to the NDRF and anyone can contribute to this fund as a voluntary contribution, the top court said as it heard a petition against the PM CARES fund by an NGO called Centre for Public Interest Litigation, seeking a direction that all present and future fund collections contributions and grants under the PM CARES Fund for the COVID-19 pandemic should be transferred to National Disaster Response Fund. The petition said PM CARES fund violates the provisions of Disaster Management Act.

The court also said there is no need for a new plan and that one under the National Disaster Management Act is enough to deal with COVID-19.

Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund was set up by the centre on March 28 to deal with any kind of emergency situation like the one currently posed by the pandemic and provide relief to those affected. The Prime Minister is the ex-officio chairman of the fund and the defence, home and finance ministers are ex-officio trustees.

A three-judge bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah delivered the verdict today through video-conferencing.

Supreme Court of India upholds the validity of #PMCaresFund . Refuses to instruct Govt to transfer fund to NDRF . Hope that should send out a message…loud and clear.

— Dr Jitendra Singh (@DrJitendraSingh) August 18, 2020

Unfortunate that the SC allows the non-transparent & unaccountable PM-Cares fund set up as a secret trust to garner money in the name of Covid relief, rather than transferring such funds to the Statutory NDRF which is accessible under RTI & audited by CAG. https://t.co/jZX6Q5Y8EJ

— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) August 18, 2020