Review Plea Challenging PM CARES Fund Validity: Allahabad High Court Issues Notice To UOI, NDMA

The Allahabad High Court today issued notices to the Union of India and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in a civil review petition filed before it challenging the validity of the PM CARES Fund.

It may be noted that in August 2020, the High Court, hearing a PIL plea filed by two HC advocates Divya Pal Singh and Anubhav Singh, rejected the challenge to the constitutional validity of the PMCARES Fund and the PMNRF in the light of the Disaster Management Act.

Thereafter, the petitioner moved the Supreme Court challenging the HC's order, however, the Top Court, in March 2022, directed the petitioner to file a review before the Allahabad High Court. Following this, the instant review petition has been moved before the HC.

Now, hearing the review plea last week, the bench of Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker and Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh issued notices to the UOI and NDMA and also granted them the liberty to file their objection to the delay condonation application by the applicant. With this, the matter has been posted for hearing in the last week of July.

It may be noted that the review plea before the HC, moved through Advocates Ankur Azad and Shashwat Anand, has been filed stating that the PMNRF and PM-CARES are unconstitutional and void, for not being backed by any law and for being at odds with the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), which was constituted by the Central Government under Section 46 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 (DMA).

It has been pleaded in the petition that the money/ funds contained in the PMNRF and PMCARES Fund be transferred/ credited to the NDRF. The applicant has also submitted that the Government does not have the power to create a Trust, otherwise than by an authority of law, as per Entry 10 of the Concurrent List under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.

Case title - Divya Pal Singh vs. Union Of India And 2 Others [CIVIL MISC REVIEW APPLICATION No. - 337 of 2022]

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