The Supreme Court will on Tuesday pronounce its judgment on a plea that seeks all contributions made to the PM CARES Fund till date should be transferred to the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), reported The Hindu.
As per the report, a three-judge Bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan will deliver the verdict on a PIL filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL). The government has told the Supreme Court that it is a “misconception” that contributions received by a public trust like PM-CARES can be transferred to a statutory fund like the National Disaster Relief Fund.
Meanwhile, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said corporate contributors are lured to donate to PM-CARES because they can avail of corporate social responsibility (CSR) benefits, which is not possible in the case of donations to States’ fund.
The Centre on March 28 had set up the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund with the primary objective to deal with any kind of emergency situation like the one currently posed by the COVID-19 outbreak and provide relief to those affected.
The prime minister is the ex-officio chairman of the fund and the defence, home and finance ministers are its ex-officio trustees.
On June 17, the top court had asked the Centre to file its response on the plea, which has sought a direction that all the contributions made by individuals and institutions for the COVID-19 pandemic should be credited to the NDRF, rather than to the PM CARES Fund.
(Inputs from Agencies)