In a move to combat the outbreak of pandemic COVID-19, all the judges of Supreme Court, including CJI S.A. Bobde have donated Rs 50,000 each to PM Cares Fund to aid the national fight against the deadly disease. Earlier, Justice N.V. Ramana had donated Rs 1 lakh each to the PM’s relief fund and to Andhra Pradesh CM’s relief fund and Telangana CM’s relief fund to fight the pandemic.
This specific fund was announced by the Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi last week and it invites individual contributions from people of all walks of life to donate in this fund which shall only be used in citizens’ assistance and relief in emergency situations. The Prime Minister is the chairman of PM CARES Fund trust and its members include Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
In a recent development the government has also issued an ordinance namely Taxation and other laws(Relaxation of certain provisions) ordinance, 2020 in order to make the donations to PM CARES Fund eligible for 100% deduction under section 80G of the IT Act. Further, the limit on deduction of 10% of gross income shall also not be applicable for donations made to PM CARES Fund.
Several key personalities in India have made donations to the Fund to combat COVID-19 pandemic. Former Supreme Court Judge Sh. Deepak Verma also announced that he will contribute a sum of Rupees 51 Lakh to the PM National Relief fund. Judges of Patna High Court, Jammu and Kashmir High Court and Delhi High Court have already made donations to the afore said fund for the welfare of affected persons.
At this juncture, donations made by judges of the Supreme Court of India shows that Indian Judiciary is deeply concerned about health and well- being of Indian people and this act of generosity shown by Judges of Apex Court shall encourage more members from the legal fraternity to come forward and donate for this social cause.
-India Legal Bureau