The Delhi High Court on Wednesday has dismissed the PIL seeking direction to the PM CARES Fund to divulge information under the Right to Information Act, 2005.
The petition was listed before the bench headed by the Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan, refused to entertain the petition which had also sought direction to PM CARES fund to display on its website the details of the money received and for what purposes it has been utilized.
The PIL was filed by Dr. S.S. Hoodaan Advocate-On-Record through his Advocate Mr. Aditya Hooda in furtherance of an RTI filed by Harsha Kulkarni who had sought information about the PM Cares Fund under the said Act in which the PM Office reply stated that the fund is not a ‘public authority’ within the ambit of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act, 2005.
The petition stated that “The reluctance of the trustees of the fund in divulging information as to the management of the fund raises a profoundly serious apprehension since the fund has been set up to fight Covid-19 which is a public cause.”
Dr. Hooda had raised the issue through his petition that, If PM CARES fund is held not to be a public authority, it needs to be examined as to whether the public authorities at the highest level could prompt the government agencies, public servants, to contribute to this funds whose details are now sought to be kept opaque.
-India Legal Bureau