The Bombay High Court today sought a reply from the Centre on petition seeking an audit by the Comptroller & Auditor General of India and public declaration of funds received by the Prime Minister’s Citizens Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund), a public charitable trust which was created by the union government for dealing with contingencies arising due to the outbreak of Covid-19.
The division bench comprising of Justice Sunil B Shukre and Justice Anil S Kilor of the Nagpur bench has directed the Centre to file an affidavit in reply to the petition and clarify its stand on the issues raised in the plea.
Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh submitted before the bench that the petition should be dismissed as a similar petition filed before the Supreme Court had also been dismissed in April/
However, the bench observed that the present petition is seeking different reliefs than the ones filed before the Supreme Court and directed the Union government to file aresponse to the plea within two weeks.
As per the petition, the PM Cares Fund was formed on March 28 and although Rs.6500 crore was reported to have been collected in the first week, subsequent data regarding funds collected has not been made available.
The PM CARES trust is chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself and ministers from the departments of defence, home and finance are members of the trust. It was created with the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency posed by the coronavirus outbreak.
Furthermore, the petitioner has contended that as per the guidelines of the PM CARES Fund, that the chairperson had to appoint or nominate three more trustees. However, since the formation of the trust on March 28, 2020 till date no such appointment has been made.
The petitioner prays for the court to direct the government and the trust to appoint or nominate at least two members from opposition parties in the lower house as well as the upper house to “have a proper check and transparency.”
Additional directions have also been sought to allow CAG to audit the PM Cares Fund instead of an independent auditor selected by the trustees of the fund, which is what the government wants.
The petition highlighting PM CARES fund stated-
“In order to fortify and strengthen the general public’s faith and confidence, it is necessary to issue a direction to the government to declare the funds collected by PM CARES trust till date and how the same have been used for the benefits of citizens affected by coronavirus.”
