The Prime Minister National Relief Fund (PMNRF) and the Prime Minister’s Citizen’s Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) were both challenged as being unconstitutional during a hearing on a review petition, and the Allahabad High Court served notices on both the Centre and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
The review petition requested that the PM CARES Fund and PMNRF be declared unconstitutional because there is already the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), which is constituted by the central government and is a statutory fund under the 2005 Act, needed to combat a crisis such as Covid-19. [1]
“The PMNRF has lost its utility, necessity, and efficacy and has become otiose and redundant due to its conflict of interests with that of the NDRF,” the petitioner claimed. “The National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) is already a statutory public trust established by the central government.”
After hearing Divya Pal Singh’s review petition, a division bench made up of Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker and Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh decided to schedule the case for the last week of July.
Singh’s lawsuit contesting the legality of the PM CARES Fund was previously dismissed by a division bench of the high court on August 31, 2020.
Following that, a petition was filed with the Supreme Court, contesting the high court’s August 31 decision. [2]
The Supreme Court directed the petitioner to first approach the high court by filing a review petition, and then to return to the highest court if he was dissatisfied with the high court’s ruling in review.
Since the PM CARES fund is by its very nature non-transparent, opaque, and unaccountable, the petitioner sought to declare it legally unsustainable because a significant amount of public funds had been secretly placed into its bank account.
Furthermore, it is outside the scope of the RTI Act, unaudited by the CAG, and fully concealed from public observation and inspection, according to the appeal.
The public is unaware of the enormous sums of cash that are routinely, illegally, and secretly injected into the PM CARES fund, nor do they know how or where it is used. Additionally, the petition claimed that there was no information or proof of voluntary donations, which may outweigh involuntary gifts.
The petitioner also requested that the money collected by the central government as public trusts in PMNRF and PM CARES fund be deemed as money collected towards NDRF established by the central government under the 2005 Act and that the funds so collected be transferred/credited therein so that they can be scrutinised and used fairly and under the mandate of the 2005 Act.
It asked the high court to order the central government to fully disclose the accounts, activity, and expenditure details of the PM CARES fund to the general public, preferably by publishing the details on the official government website for everyone to see and the accounts to be updated on a regular basis. [3]
In addition, the petitioner asked the court to order the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) to conduct an audit of the PM CARES fund in the interests of justice and the general public. [4]
Written by- Himanshu Mishra, a student at St. Mother Teresa Law Degree College, Lucknow, 2nd Semester, an intern under Legal Vidhiya.
References:
[1]LEGAL WORLD, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, https://legal.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/litigation/allahabad-hc-notice-to-centre-ndma-on-validity-of-pm-cares-fund/100391014 (last visited on 22nd MAY, 2023);
[2] Ibid;
[3] BAR AND BENCH, https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/allahabad-high-court-issues-notice-to-union-ndma-in-review-plea-challenging-legality-of-pm-cares-fund (last visited on 22nd MAY, 2023);
[4] Ibid.
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