Supreme Court on Monday, reserved its order on a plea seeking transfer of all the funds collected in the PM CARES Fund to the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF). PM CARES Fund was formulated to raise funds amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who was appearing for centre, told the SC bench that PM CARES fund is a voluntary fund. On the contrary, funds deposited in SDRF and NDRF are made available through budgetary allocations.
A PIL has been filed by a non-profit organization, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) which was seeking top court’s directions to transfer the money collected in the government initiated PM CARES Fund to the National Disaster Response Fund.
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave appearing for the petitioner, CPIL argued, “they are not doubting the bonafide of anyone but the creation of the PM CARES Fund is allegedly in contravention of provisions of the Disaster Management Act.”
Dave also claimed that the NDRF audit is being conducted by Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) while the government has communicated that the audit of PM CARES fund will be done by private auditors.
On June 17, Supreme Court had asked centre to submit its response on the plea which demands to credit all the contributions made towards PM CARES Fund aimed at utilizing the money to combat against COVID-19 to National Disaster Response Fund.
