SC dismissed the plea to transfer PM CARES Fund to NDRF

SC dismissed the plea to transfer PM CARES Fund to NDRF

The petition was filed by Center for Public Interest Litigation(CPIL),  led by Advocate Prashant Bhushan. On Tuesday, Supreme court ruled in the PM Cares Fund matter and dismissed a plea seeking directions to transfer all contributions made to the PM Cares Fund to the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF).

To know about PM CARES FUND

In view of the increasing cases of Corona, PM Modi created the PM Cares Fund.  The purpose of this fund is to make arrangements to deal with an emergency like Corona. People can donate voluntarily without any compulsion to this fund.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan comprising justice R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah  said that PM cares cannot order the transfer of funds to the NDRF. As such there is no requirement of new disaster policy.

The Supreme Court has said in its decision that PM Cares Fund is also a charity fund.  So there is no need to transfer money.  The Supreme Court has clearly mentioned that any person or organization can donate money to the NDRF.

 On July 8 , government said that the PM Cares Fund is a fund set up to carry out relief work and the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation and in the past many such funds have been created on this pattern.

The petitioner Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) claimed that PM Cares Fund was created in violation of the legal order under the Disaster Management Act of 2005.  The petitioner argued that according to the Disaster Management act, any grant given by any person or institution for disaster management should be essentially transferred to NDRF.

Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave appeared for Centre For Public Interest Litigation and  mentioned that the setting up of the PM Cares Fund was in fact, a Fraud Upon the Constitution.

The petitioner claimed that under Section 46 of the Disaster Management Act, there is a provision for depositing funds in the NDRF, then what is the need of this fund against Corona.  Apart from this, the question was raised in the petition that it is not even being audited by the CAG.

By Priya Kumari

SC dismissed the plea to transfer PM CARES Fund to NDRF SC dismissed the plea to transfer PM CARES Fund to NDRF