PM Cares a public fund, not intended to circumvent NDRF, govt tells top court

nNEW DELHI: The central government on Monday dismissed concerns that PM Cares Fund is intended to circumvent National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), a statutory fund created under section 46 of the Disaster Management Act of 2005 (DM Act) for dealing with disasters.

A three-judge bench headed by justice Ashok Bhushan reserved its verdict.

In a plea before the Supreme Court by NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) seeking transfer of contributions made to PM Cares Fund till date to NDRF, the centre’s second senior-most law officer, solicitor general Tushar Mehta said that PM Cares Fund is a public charitable trust to which anyone can contribute.

“Whatever amount that has to go to NDRF under the law will go (to NDRF). PM Cares is a public charitable trust. If private individuals want to donate, they can do so. There are several public charitable trusts getting donations”, Mehta maintained. NDRF is funded through budgetary allocations, the law officer pointed out.

He was responding to the arguments of senior counsel Dushyant Dave, who claimed that PM Cares was a fraud on the Constitution and was intended to skirt the NDRF.

The PM Cares Fund was set up by the central government on March 28 as a public charitable trust with the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation such as that posed by COVID-19 pandemic.

“See the objective of PM Cares. It is to be a dedicated national fund for distress situations such as COVID. This is a fraud upon Constitution. It’s a trust created to circumvent NDRF”, Dave, who was representing CPIL, said.

Senior counsel Kapil Sibal, who was appearing for an intervenor, said contributions made towards PM Cares come within the purview of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporates would, therefore, prefer making donations to PM Cares.