New Delhi: According to an affidavit to the Delhi High Court on Prime Minister’s- Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situation Fund (PM-CARES Fund), the fund is a public charitable trust and that it is not created by or under the Indian Constitution or any other statute, and the amount received by it does not go in the Consolidated Fund of India.
The affidavit was filed by Under Secretary at Prime Minister’s Office it stated that there is no control of either the Central Government or the State Government in the functioning of the PM CARES Trust.
āIrrespective of whether the trust is a āStateā or other authority within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution of India and or whether it is a āpublic authorityā within the meaning of section 2[h] of Right to Information Act, Section 8 in general and that of provisions contained in sub section [e] and [j], in particular, of the Right to Information Act, it is not permissible to disclose third party information,ā Pradeep Kumar Srivastava, an Under Secretary at the PMO said in a reply.
The affidavit was filed in response to a petition by Samayak Gangwal seeking that PM-CARES Fund be declared as āThe Stateā under Article 12 of the Constitution. The plea asserted that citizens of the country are anxious that a fund set up by the Prime Minister and with trustees like the PM and ministers of Home, Defence and Finance has been declared to be a fund over which there is no government control.
The petition filed states that the PM-CARES Fund was formed by the Prime Minister in March 2020 for a noble purpose of extending assistance to the citizens in wake of Covid-19 pandemic and huge donations were received by it. However, the plea said, a copy of the trust deed was released by the PM-CARES Fund on its website in December 2020, according to which it is not created by or under the Constitution or by any law made by Parliament.
“PM CARES Fund has been set up as a public charitable trust and is not created by or under the Constitution of India or by any law made by the Parliament or by any State Legislatureā¦ this Trust is neither intended to be or is in fact owned, controlled or substantially financed by any Central Government or State Government or any instrumentality of the any Government.
In other words there is no control of the central government or any state government/s, either direct or indirect, in functioning of the trust in any manner whosoever.
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