PM Cares Fund: A Public Authority?

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The author of this blog is Rajeev Ranjan, 4th Semester  BA LLB (HONS.) The Central  University  Of South  Bihar.


“Keeping in mind the need for having a dedicated national fund with the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to provide relief to the affected, a public charitable trust under the name of ‘Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund’ (PM CARES Fund)’ has been set up.”[1] 

The above lines are from the official website of the PM CARES fund operated by the Prime Minister’s office. As mentioned above PM CARES fund is a public charitable trust and has been set up to deal with difficult situations like a pandemic. Of course, the objective of this trust shows that it serves the larger public importance. The fund was created on 28th March 2020, following the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the chairman of the trust. Since 28th March, 1000s of crores rupees have been collected through this fund. An RTI application was filed to seek information regarding the constitution of PM CARES Fund. The application was filed by Harsha Kandukuri, a student pursuing LLM from Azim Premji University at Bengaluru. The RTI application sought the copies of the trust deed of PM CARES Fund, all the Government orders, notifications, and circulars relating to its creation and operation. The application was disposed by Prime Minister Office on May 29 replying that ‘PM CARES Fund is not a public authority under the ambit of section 2(h) of the RTI Act, 2005.’[2] Although the reply that PM CARES Fund is not a public authority is not corroborating to the description of PM CARES Fund which is given on the PMO website. Such a response from the PMO has given rise to several questions and obscurity. 

The Right to Information Act was enacted in the year 2005 and the Act provides citizens the right to access information relating to public authorities to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority. As per Section 2(h) of the RTI Act, “Public Authority” means any authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted – (a) by or under the constitution (b) by any other law made by Parliament (c) by any other law made by the state legislature (d) by a notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government. The definition of ‘Public Authority’ also includes bodies owned, controlled or substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government.[3] So, according to section 2(h)(d) of the RTI Act, an authority constituted by an order of the Government is a ‘public authority’. Does the Government want to say that PM CARES Fund is not created by them? So, if the Government is stating that PM CARES Fund is not a ‘public authority’ then it is only reasonable to infer that it is not controlled by the Government. But if we see the name, composition of the trust, control, usage of emblem, Government domain name everything signifies that it is a public authority. With the denial of revealing the information related to this fund, the Government has constructed walls of secrecy around it. The public wants to know the reason for which the Government is avoiding transparency and refusing to divulge information. 

It is to be noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the ex-officio chairman; Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman are the ex-officio trustees of the PM CARES Fund.[4] So the trust which is being run by 4 Cabinet Ministers in their ex-officio capacities is being denied the status of ‘public authority’. The public is entitled to know how the fund is being operated, the decision-making process of the trust, and the measures which have been decided for ensuring that the money is not being misused. Another question arises that why this separate fund was needed when the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund was already there.

 PM CARES Fund also falls outside the ambit of Article 266(2) of the Constitution of India which mentions that all public money received by or on behalf of the Government of India or the Government of a state shall be credited to the public account of India or the public account of the state, as the case may be. And the Government has already denied it from being the public authority. This gives rise to several questions like grant or necessity of a trust deed certificate; registration under section 12(A)(a) of the Income Tax Act, 1961; registration under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 considering the fund has received an exemption from provisions of both the aforementioned legislations. 

The basic object of the Right to Information Act, 2005 is to empower the citizens and to make our democracy work for the people in real sense.[5] Lack of transparency in the system leads to several divergent interpretations based on vague speculations. The State Emblem of India (Prohibition of Improper Use) Act, 2005 prohibit the improper use of state emblem of India for professional and commercial purpose. PM CARES Fund not being a public authority uses the state emblem. It means the Central Government has authorized the fund to the application of Emblem or its colorable imitation. If it is so then there appears to be an absence of notification issued by the Government in the official gazette which is essential as per section 11 of the Act. As per this section, the center may make rules to carry out the purposes of the legislation, in the context of the PM CARES Fund. 

On 2 June, Bombay High Court on hearing a petition has issued notice to the Central Government and all the trustees of PM CARES Fund seeking a declaration of the amount collected. Justice Sunil Shukre and Justice Anil Killer directed the Central Government to file an affidavit within two weeks. The petition also claimed that as per the guidelines of the PM CARES Fund, the Chair Person is supposed to appoint three more trustees. The petition sought that at least two members from the opposition parties should be included in the trust. Also, a PIL has been filed before the Delhi High Court seeking greater transparency in the PM CARES Fund by bringing it under the ambit of the RTI Act.
So, concluding my article I want to say that every citizen has the right to know how much fund has been collected through PM CARES Fund and how the same is being expended. The court must decide this matter and interpret it to solve all the ambiguities. We are living in a democratic republic. Democracy requires the transparency of information which is vital to its functioning and also helpful to curtail corruption and hold Government and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed. The RTI Act was enacted for certain purposes. The purpose and intention with which any law is enacted are of great importance. The dignity of that purpose must be maintained and I believe that Judiciary will not let anybody defeat that purpose and intention.

[2] PMO reply to RTI filed
[3] rti.gov.in/rti-act.pdf (Act No. 22 of 2005)
[5] rti.gov.in ( Visited on June 6, 2020) 

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