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A plea in Delhi High Court has challenged the rejection of information on PM CARES fund by the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) in response to an RTI application. The response by the CPIO stated that the information cannot be divulged since PM CARES fund is not a public authority under section 2(h) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
As per the Act a public authority means any authority, 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 and
d) by notification issued or order made by the appropriate government. It also includes “body owned, controlled or substantially financed; non-governmental organisation substantially financed directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate government”.
The petitioner, Samyak Gangwal, who was also the applicant, had asked for a copy of the trust deed of PM CARES Fund, copy of a document/letter under which the fund was created and a copy of the entire file where decision to constitute the fund was taken. The same was denied by the CPIO, for reasons stated above.
The single judge bench of Justice Navin Chawla has sought reply from the Solicitor General on the petition on behalf of the PMO as well as the CPIO.
There is a separate plea in Delhi High Court seeking a direction to the trustees of Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) fund to display on its website the amount collected so far and how the fund has been utilized.
The Supreme Court has previously dismissed two petitions challenging the validity of the PM CARES fund. A petition is pending before the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court seeking transparency and an audit of the fund by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
The order can be read here.
Related:
Is PM CARES a public authority or not?
Plea in Delhi HC seeking directions to get PM CARES under RTI Act
Bombay HC’s Nagpur bench refuses to dismiss petition seeking CAG audit of PM CARES, issues notice