<p>The Supreme Court on Tuesday held that the money collected for the PM Cares Fund, a registered public charitable trust, can't be ordered to be utilised or transferred to the National Disaster Response Fund.</p>.<p>A bench presided over by Justice Ashok Bhushan rejected a plea by advocate Prashant Bhushan made on behalf of an NGO CPIL for the CAG audit of PM Cares Fund. </p>.<p>The guidelines issued in 2005 with regard to NDRF specifically provided for audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India whereas for public charitable trust there is no occasion for audit by the constitutional body.</p>.<p>"It is not open for anybody to question the wisdom of trustees to create PM Cares Fund, constituted with an objective to extend assistance in the wake of public health emergency that is Covid-19 pandemic," the court said.</p>.<p>The bench, also comprising Justices R Subhash Reddy and M R Shah, also pointed out the PM Cares Fund was set up as a charitable trust on March 27, 2020 with voluntary contributions by individuals and institutions and without any budgetary support and government money.</p>.<p>The top court also refused a plea to direct for transfer of all the money collected in the PM Cares Fund till date to the NDRF, a statutory fund.</p>.<p>It noted that after the March 14, 2020 notification, Covid-19 has been treated as a national disaster, enabling the Union government to provide financial assistance to fight the pandemic. As much as Rs 11,092 crores out of Rs 22,184 crores, the central share has already been released to the State Disaster Risk Management Fund. </p>.<p>Congress party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala termed the judgement as "body blow to transparency and accountability".</p>.<p>The judgement came as much relief to the Union government and the ruling BJP, facing attack for not disclosing the thousands of crores of contributions received to the fund at the call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.</p>.<p>"The verdict...is a resounding blow to nefarious design of Rahul Gandhi and his band of 'rent a cause' activists. It shows the truth shines despite the ill intent and malicious efforts of the Congress party and its associates," BJP President J P Nadda tweeted.</p>.<p>"The Gandhi family treated PMNRF as it’s personal fiefdom for decades & brazenly transferred citizens’ hard-earned money to its family trusts.The country very well knows that the orchestrated smear campaign against PM Cares is an attempt by the Congress to wash its sins," he added.</p>.<p>Advocate Bhushan, for his part, said it is "unfortunate that the SC allows the non-transparent & unaccountable PM Cares fund set up as a secret trust to garner money in the name of Covid relief, rather than transferring such funds to the Statutory NDRF which is accessible under RTI & audited by CAG."</p>
<p>The Supreme Court on Tuesday held that the money collected for the PM Cares Fund, a registered public charitable trust, can't be ordered to be utilised or transferred to the National Disaster Response Fund.</p>.<p>A bench presided over by Justice Ashok Bhushan rejected a plea by advocate Prashant Bhushan made on behalf of an NGO CPIL for the CAG audit of PM Cares Fund. </p>.<p>The guidelines issued in 2005 with regard to NDRF specifically provided for audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India whereas for public charitable trust there is no occasion for audit by the constitutional body.</p>.<p>"It is not open for anybody to question the wisdom of trustees to create PM Cares Fund, constituted with an objective to extend assistance in the wake of public health emergency that is Covid-19 pandemic," the court said.</p>.<p>The bench, also comprising Justices R Subhash Reddy and M R Shah, also pointed out the PM Cares Fund was set up as a charitable trust on March 27, 2020 with voluntary contributions by individuals and institutions and without any budgetary support and government money.</p>.<p>The top court also refused a plea to direct for transfer of all the money collected in the PM Cares Fund till date to the NDRF, a statutory fund.</p>.<p>It noted that after the March 14, 2020 notification, Covid-19 has been treated as a national disaster, enabling the Union government to provide financial assistance to fight the pandemic. As much as Rs 11,092 crores out of Rs 22,184 crores, the central share has already been released to the State Disaster Risk Management Fund. </p>.<p>Congress party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala termed the judgement as "body blow to transparency and accountability".</p>.<p>The judgement came as much relief to the Union government and the ruling BJP, facing attack for not disclosing the thousands of crores of contributions received to the fund at the call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.</p>.<p>"The verdict...is a resounding blow to nefarious design of Rahul Gandhi and his band of 'rent a cause' activists. It shows the truth shines despite the ill intent and malicious efforts of the Congress party and its associates," BJP President J P Nadda tweeted.</p>.<p>"The Gandhi family treated PMNRF as it’s personal fiefdom for decades & brazenly transferred citizens’ hard-earned money to its family trusts.The country very well knows that the orchestrated smear campaign against PM Cares is an attempt by the Congress to wash its sins," he added.</p>.<p>Advocate Bhushan, for his part, said it is "unfortunate that the SC allows the non-transparent & unaccountable PM Cares fund set up as a secret trust to garner money in the name of Covid relief, rather than transferring such funds to the Statutory NDRF which is accessible under RTI & audited by CAG."</p>
