The Supreme Court has
issued notice to the Central Government in a PIL seeking for transfer of all
funds from PM CARES Fund which was set up to combat the COVID-19 pandemic to
National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).
A Bench comprising of Justices Ashok Bhushan, SK Kaul and MR Shah heard
the matter and issued notice to the Central Government and directed the Centre
to file its reply affidavit within a period of 4 weeks.
The plea, filed by Advocate Prashant
Bhushan on behalf of Centre
for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), seeks for the setting up of a
National Plan under Section 11, read with Section 10 of the Disaster Management
Act, 2005, in order to deal with the current pandemic and, to lay down minimum
standards of relief under Section 12 of DMA.
It also states that the "Centre may
be directed to utilize National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) for the purpose
of providing assistance in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic in compliance
with Section 46 of the DM Act, all the contributions/grants from individuals
anf institutions shall be credited to the NDRF in terms of Section 46(1)(b)
rather than to PM CARES Fund and all the funds collected in the PM Cares Fund
till date may be directed to be transferred to the NDRF".
The plea contends that the NDRF is not being utilized by the authorities,
despite the looming health crisis, and that the setting up of the PM CARES Fund
is outside the scope of the DM Act. It further raises the issue of lack of
transparency with regard to the PM Cares Fund, stating that it is not subject
to CAG Audits and has also been proclaimed to be outside the purview of the RTI
Act by not being under the definition of "public authority".
"It is pertinent to mention herein that
Section 72 of the DM Act provides that the provisions of the DM Act, shall have
effect, notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in any other
law for the time being in force or in any instrument having effect by virtue of
any law other than the DM Act."
In light of the above submissions, the plea prays for the contributions to
the PM CARES Fund to be transferred to NDRF, so that the statutory provisions
of the DM Act, 2005 are followed in both letter and spirit.
Today, Senior Advocate Dushyant
Dave, appearing on behalf of CPIL, submitted to the Court that the
matter was not adversarial; they were not against the government, but were only
seeking for their assistance.
"The mandate has been completely overlooked by the government. The
nation is suffering. Immediate intervention of the Supreme Court is
required", Dave said.
Justice Bhushan responded that the issue of National Plan and the minimum
standard of relief under Section 12 of the DMA had already been argued and
taken up in the suo moto matter regarding the problems and miseries of migrant
workers.
"The only issue that remains is the prayer regarding PM CARES Fund. We
could tag that along with the suo moto case".
Dave, however, insisted that the instant plea must be taken up separately
and not be rolled over to the Suo Moto case. While Justice Kaul expressed the
difficulty in passing interim orders at this stage, he stated that the Bench
was inclined to issue notice.
At this juncture, Solicitor-General
Tushar Mehta objected to the issuance of notice and requested
for the petition to be provided to him.
"Instead of issuing notice, give me a copy of the Petition. Let the
copy be served. We will respond to it. Please avoid notice."
Dave objected to this submission and informed the Bench that the Order was
being dictated by the SG. The Bench, however, rejected this assertion and
reprimanded Dave about the same.
"We have issued notice. You say we listen to the GSG, then they say
that we listen to you. How can you say that we are not hearing you? We consider
it appropriate to issue notice, so we are issuing notice. We'll consider and
hear the matter once the counter is filed. Let there be a response now."
The matter has now been listed after 4 weeks, with the direction to the
Centre to respond on the prayer seeking for transfer of funds from PM Cares
Fund to NDRF.
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