PM-CARES fund charitable, RTI Act not applicable: Trust to HC | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
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PM-CARES fund charitable, RTI Act not applicable: Trust to HC

By, New Delhi
Feb 01, 2023 12:31 AM IST

The PM Cares Trust is a public charitable trust and has not been created by or under the Constitution or by any law made by Parliament or a state legislature, the trust has told the Delhi high court.

The PM Cares Trust is a public charitable trust and has not been created by or under the Constitution or by any law made by Parliament or a state legislature, the trust has told the Delhi high court.

The PM Cares Trust is a public charitable trust and has not been created by or under the Constitution or by any law made by Parliament or a state legislature, the trust has told the Delhi high court. (Mint)
The PM Cares Trust is a public charitable trust and has not been created by or under the Constitution or by any law made by Parliament or a state legislature, the trust has told the Delhi high court. (Mint)

In an affidavit on January 28 in response to a plea by a lawyer Samyak Gangwal seeking to declare the PM-CARES Fund as “State” under the Constitution to ensure transparency in its functioning, the trust has said it is not a “State” under Article 12 of the Constitution and does not qualify as a public authority under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

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It said no information about funding could be given to a third party as the funds are not used for any government purposes while adding that the contributions as well as the corpus of PM-CARES do not have even a remote connection with the Consolidated Fund of India.

It reiterated that the corpus is not a fund of the Government of India and the amount does not go into the Consolidated Fund of India.

“There is no control of either the Central Government or any State Government/s, either direct or indirect, in functioning of the Trust in any manner whatsoever. The composition of the Board of Trustees consisting of holders of Public Office ex Officio is merely for administrative convenience and for smooth succession to the Trusteeship,” the trust told the high court in a 57-page affidavit filed through advocate Rajat Nair.

It said the trust is neither intended to be nor is it owned, controlled or substantially financed by any government or any instrumental of the government.

“That the PM-CARES Fund/Trust does not owe its genesis to a decision or function of appropriate government. The funds of the Trust do not have any government character as no guidelines can be laid down for disbursement of the amount from the Funds of PM-CARES Trust,” it said.

It said that the trust accepts only voluntary donations by individuals and institutions. “Contributions flowing out of budgetary sources of Government or from the balance sheets of the public sector undertakings are not accepted. Conditional contributions, where the donor specifically mentions that the amount is meant for a particular purpose, are not accepted in the Fund,” the affidavit said.

On Tuesday, senior advocate Shyam Divan for the petitioner contended that the fund is the “State” and highest constitutional functionaries have represented it to be an initiative of the Government of India and called for donations and contributions from the public.

He said if it is assumed that the fund is not the “State”, then symbols such as the Government of India, Ashoka Pillar or the government’s website cannot be used as that gives an impression to the public that it is the “State”.

The matter was argued at length by the petitioner’s counsel following which it was posted for a later date for solicitor general Tushar Mehta to argue his case.

Detailing the transparency maintained in the donations and the funds received by them, the trust told the court that the benefit of the objects of the trust have been made available to the general public irrespective of caste, creed, sex, region, language and religion.

“Audited Reports of the PM CARES Fund are already available on the website *pmcares.gov.in. Subsequent audited details of accounts will also be made available on the website, as and when due. Hence, assumptions of the petitioner regarding arbitrariness or non-transparency are devoid of merit,” the affidavit said, adding that its funds are audited by an auditor who is a chartered accountant drawn from the panel prepared by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.

It further stated that PM-CARES Fund accepts only voluntary donations by individuals and institutions and contributions flowing out of budgetary sources of the government or from the balance sheets of the public sector undertakings are not accepted.

“Contributions made to PM-CARES Fund/Trust are exempted under the Income Tax Act, 1961, but that by itself would not justify the conclusion that it is a Public Authority,” it said.

The trust said the PM-CARES Fund is administered on the pattern of the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) as both are chaired by the Prime Minister. As the national emblem and domain name ‘gov.in’ are being used for the PMNRF, it is also being used for the PM CARES Fund, the trust said.

It said the composition of the board of trustees, consisting of holders of public office ex officio, is merely for administrative convenience and for smooth succession to the trusteeship and is neither intended to be nor in fact result into any governmental control in the functioning of the trust in any manner whatsoever.

Another petition filed by the same petitioner in 2020 seeking to declare PM-CARES a ‘public authority’ under the Right to Information (RTI) Act is pending before the court.

Earlier, the court had taken exception to the short reply filed by the Union government and directed it to file a detailed response on the contentions raised in the petition. The trust, while responding to the petitions, questioned the locus of the petitioner and said that he had neither contributed to the fund nor had any legal injury been caused to him.

Seeking dismissal of the plea, the trust said the petitions have been filed to gain publicity.

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    Reports from the Delhi High Court and stories on legal developments in the city. Avid mountain lover, cooking and playing with birds 🐦 when not at work

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