PM Cares Fund has been established as an independent charitable trust - Central Government

PM Cares Fund has been established as an independent charitable trust, independent of the Constitution or parliamentary law, according to the Central Government. The Center stated in a detailed affidavit submitted to the High Court that the government, including the Central and State governments, has no direct or indirect control over the fund.

Further, it was stated that the PM CARES Fund is entirely funded by voluntary donations and does not receive any government support. Nor does it accept contributions from government budgets or public sector balance sheets.

Further, the trust was not classified as a "public authority" as defined in Section 2(h)(d) of the RTI Act, and therefore, the provisions of the Act cannot be applied to it.

The affidavit was filed in response to an application seeking a declaration of PM CARES Fund as 'State'.

In July 2022, the High Court expressed its displeasure with the Central Government's earlier, hardly one-page response.

According to Senior Advocate Shyam Divan, the Vice-President had requested the Rajya Sabha members to donate to the petitioners' cause. He said all these high functionaries are very responsible people and the PM Cares Fund has been projected as a government fund.

Further, the Center stated that the PM CARES Fund is a public charitable trust that is overseen by the government of India. It is managed transparently and its funds are audited by a chartered accountant. The reports of the audits are made available to the public on the website pmcares.gov.in. Moreover, they are similar to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund and hence, use the same emblem and the domain name 'gov. in'.

The affidavit stated that the petition is founded on assumptions and lacks evidence that the petitioner has been personally impacted by the issue at hand. As a result, the affidavit argued that the petition is not valid and should be dismissed.