- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE PM CARES Fund is not a fund of the Indian government and amount collected under it does not go to the Consolidated Fund of India, the Delhi High Court has been told.
According to an affidavit filed by an under-secretary at the prime minister’s office (PMO) who is discharging his functions in the PM Cares Fund on honorary basis, the trust functions with transparency and its funds are audited by an auditor – a chartered accountant drawn from the panel prepared by India’s comptroller and auditor general.
The affidavit was filed in response to a petition that sought a direction to announce the PM CARES Fund a ‘State’ under the Indian Constitution to ensure transparency in its functioning.
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A bench comprising Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Amit Bansal set up September 27 as the date for further hearing.
“To ensure transparency, the audited report is put on the official website of the trust along with the details of utilisation of funds received by the trust,” the affidavit filed by Pradeep Kumar Srivastava, under-secretary at the PMO, said.
“I state that when the petitioner is claiming to be a public-spirited person and seeking to pray for various reliefs only for transparency, it does not matter whether PM Cares is a ‘State’ within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution of India,” the officer said in the affidavit.
Irrespective of whether the trust is a ‘State’ or other authority within the meaning of Article 12 of the constitution or whether it is a ‘public authority’ within the meaning of provisions of the Right to Information Act (RTI), it is not permissible to disclose third party information.
It said all donations that the trust get are received via online payments, cheques or Demand Drafts and the amount received is audited with the audited report and the expenditure of trust fund displayed on the website.
“The trust functions on the principles of transparency and public good in larger public interest like any other charitable trust and, therefore, cannot have any objection in uploading all its resolutions on its website to ensure transparency,” it said, adding that “the trust’s fund is not a fund of Government of India and the amount does not go in the Consolidated Fund of India”.
The officer said he is discharging his functions in the PM Cares Trust on honorary basis which is a charitable trust not created by or under the Constitution or by any law made by the Indian Parliament or by the legislature of any of the country’s states.
“Despite being an officer of the Central government, I am permitted to discharge my functions in PM Care Trust on an honorary basis,” he said. The court was hearing a petition filed by Samyak Gangwal who has said that the PM CARES Fund is a ‘State’ as it was formed by prime minister Narendra Modi on March 27, 2020, to extend assistance to the citizens of India in the wake of the public health emergency — the Covid-19 pandemic.
His counsel told the court that if it is found that the PM CARES Fund is not ‘State’ under the constitution, usage of the domain name ‘gov’, the prime minister’s photograph, state emblem etc has to be stopped. The petition said the fund’s trustees are the prime minister, defence minister, home minister and the finance minister and immediately after the formation of the fund, the central government through its high government functionaries represented that the fund was set up and operated by the Indian government.
On March 9, the court said it was not inclined to issue notice on the plea as the central government was already represented through counsel who may file their written submissions.
The petitioner has also filed another petition to declare PM CARES as a ‘public authority’ under the Right to Information Act, which is being heard together with the first plea.
(With PTI inputs)
