SC judgment today on plea seeking to transfer funds from PM Cares to NDRF

nNEWDELHI:THE Supreme Court will pronounce its judgment on Tuesday in a plea asking that all contributions made to PM Cares fund till date be transferred to the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), a statutory fund created under section 46 of the Disaster Management Act of 2005 (DM Act).

The verdict will also decide whether the PM Cares Fund violates the legal provisions contained in the DM Act.

The petitioner NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) claimed that PM Cares Fund was set up in violation of the legal mandate under the DM Act as per which any grant made by any person or institution for the purpose of disaster management should be compulsorily credited to NDRF.

The PM Cares Fund was set up bythecentreonmarch28asapublic charitable trust with the objective of dealing with any kind of emergency situation such as that posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Even though there is a provision for NDRF under Section 46 of the Disaster Management Act, the central government has come up with a PM-CARES Fund. All the contribution being made by individuals and institutions in relation to COVID-19 crisis are being credited into the PM CARES Fund and not to the NDRF, in clear violation of Section 46 of the DM Act,” the petitioner submitted.

The Centre said in its affidavit on July 8 that the PM Cares is a fund established to carry out relief work and there are several such funds established on similar lines in the past.