In August 2020, the Supreme Court ‘refused’ to order transfer of funds from the PM CARES Fund to the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), saying they ‘are two entirely different funds with different object and purpose’ and ‘there is no occasion’ for such a direction. It also said guidelines specifically provide for audit of the NDRF by the Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG), but PM CARES Fund, being a public charitable trust, ‘there is no occasion for audit by the CAG.
Dismissing a writ petition filed by NGO, named, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), the bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy, and M. R. Shah said: “The funds collected in the PM CARES Fund are entirely different funds which are funds of a public charitable trust and there is no occasion for issuing any direction to transfer the said funds to the NDRF… The prayer of the petitioner to direct all the funds collected in the PM CARES Fund till date to be transferred to the NDRF is refused because the contributions made by individuals and institutions in the Fund are to be released for public purpose to fulfil the objective of the trust.” The bench also rejected the plea to direct the government to put in place a new National Plan under the National Disaster Management Act, 2005, to deal with the pandemic because all these aspects of the issue have been elaborately dealt in National Plan, 2019.
PM CARES Fund
The PM CARES Fund is a charitable trust, registered under the Registration Act, 1908 at New Delhi. The trust does not receive any budgetary support or any government money. The fund was constituted with an objective to extend assistance in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.
National Recruitment Agency (NRA) for Common Eligibility Test