Allahabad High Court
Divya Pal Singh And Another vs Union Of India And Another on 31 August, 2020
Bench: Shashi Kant Gupta, Shamim Ahmed
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD ?Court No. - 32 Case :- PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION (PIL) No. - 707 of 2020 Petitioner :- Divya Pal Singh And Another Respondent :- Union Of India And Another Counsel for Petitioner :- Shashwat Anand,Ankur Azad,Devesh Saxena Counsel for Respondent :- A.S.G.I.,Gyan Prakash(Senior Adv.) Hon'ble Shashi Kant Gupta,J.
Hon'ble Shamim Ahmed,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioners and Sri S.P. Singh, learned senior counsel assisted by Sri Ajay Singh, learned counsel for the respondents.
At the very outset, learned counsel for the respondents while referring to the judgment of the Hon'ble Apex Court rendered in Writ Petition (Civil) No.546 of 2020, Centre for Public Interest Litigation versus Union of India, decided on 18.8.2020, submitted that the dispute involved in the present matter is squarely covered by the said decision. Learned counsel for the respondents in support of his contention has relied upon the observations made by the Hon'ble Apex Court in paragraph 67, 68 and 69 of the aforesaid judgment, which runs as follows:
?67. The PM CARES Fund is a public charitable trust and is not a Government fund. The charitable trusts are public trusts. Black?s Law Dictionary, Tenth Edition defines charitable trust in following words:
?charitable trust. A trust created to benefit a specific charity, specific charities, or the general public rather than a private individual or entity. Charitable trusts are often eligible for favorable tax treatment.?
68. The mere fact that administration of the Trust is vested in trustees, i.e., a group of people, will not itself take away the public character of the Trust as has been laid down in Mulla Gulam Ali & Safiabai D. Trust Vs. Deelip Kumar & Co., (2003) 11 SCC 772. In paragraph 4, this Court laid down:
?4. The mere fact that the control in respect of the administration of the Trust vested in a group of people will not itself take away the public character of the Trust???????????..?
69. The contributions made by individuals and institutions in the PM CARES Fund are to be released for public purpose to fulfill the objective of the trust. The PM CARES Fund is a charitable trust registered under the Registration Act, 1908 at New Delhi on 27.03.2020. The trust does not receive any Budgetary support or any Government money. It is not open for the petitioner to question the wisdom of trustees to create PM CARES fund which was constituted with an objective to extend assistance in the wake of public health emergency that is pandemic COVID-19.?
In the aforesaid judgment, the Hon'ble Apex Court has made an observation thatthe funds collected in the PM CARES Fund are entirely different funds which are funds of a public charitable trust and there is no occasion for issuing any direction to transfer the said funds to the NDRF.
The Hon'ble Apex Court has further observed that the NDRF and PM CARES Fund are two entirely different funds with different object and purpose and there is no statutory prohibition for the Union of India utilizing the NDRF for providing assistance in the fight of COVID-19 in accordance with the guidelines issued for administration of NDRF; (ii) there is no statutory prohibition in making any contribution by any person or institution in the NDRF as per Section 46(1)(b)of the Act, 2005. The contribution by any person or by any institution in PM CARES Fund is voluntary and it is open for any person or institution to make contribution to the PM CARES Fund.
Learned counsel for the petitioners has not been able to rebut the contention so made by the learned counsel for the respondents.
In view of the above, we do not see any justification to interfere in the matter.
The writ petition is accordingly dismissed.
Order Date :- 31.8.2020 SP