NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday expressed displeasure over a one-page affidavit filed on behalf of the PM-CARES Fund Trust in response to a petition demanding that the PM-CARES Fund be declared a ‘State’ under Article 12 of the Constitution.
Observing that it was an important issue requiring a proper response, a division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad directed the PMO secretary to file a detailed and exhaustive reply. “This is such an important issue and only one page affidavit filed? There is not even a whisper about anything in this reply,” the court commented. “The issue isn’t that simple. We need an exhaustive reply.”
The bench gave the Centre four weeks’ time to file the detailed reply. “We will have to pass a detailed order on each and every point raised,” it remarked. The matter will be heard on September 16. In September 2021, the government had informed the High Court that the PM-CARES was “not a fund of the Government of India and the amount does not go in the Consolidated Fund of India”.
The Centre’s affidavit had said the PM-CARES was a charitable trust not created by or under the Constitution of India or by any law made by Parliament or by any state legislature. The Centre’s affidavit was filed in reply to a plea by Samyak Gangwal.