The court gave two weeks to the respondents to reply.

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has issued notices to the Union of India through the principal secretaries of Finance, Home and Defence ministries in their capacity as ex-officio members of the PM CARES fund, on a PIL by a Nagpur-based lawyer seeking, among other prayers, details of the funds collected so far to fight Covid-19 pandemic and its audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

The notices were issued by a division bench comprising Justice Sunil Shukre and Justice Anil Killor on Tuesday on the PIL filed by lawyer Arvind Waghmare in his capacity as a “citizen of India and a donor to the fund”. Rejecting Additional Solicitor General of India Anil Singh’s argument that the PIL be dismissed in light of the Supreme Court already having dismissed two petitions on the matter earlier, the bench said the issues raised in the Nagpur lawyers’ PIL were different and hence it was issuing notices.

The court gave two weeks to the respondents to reply. The petitioner has sought “appropriate directions to compulsorily audit the PM CARES Fund”, which he said was a public charitable trust,”by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India instead of independent auditors as decided by the concerned board of trustees of the fund in order to honour and respect trustworthiness of the topmost institute of the country created by the Constitution of India”.

“Also, the respondents be directed to immediately appoint/nominate other three trustees on the public trust,” the petitioner has said. He has also demanded appointment/nomination of at least two of those trustees from members of opposition parties in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in order to have proper check and balance, and also to strengthen the confidence of general public and for transparency about the high-profile fund.

The petitioner has sought immediately making public ‘the entire funds received as on date, whether domestically or from overseas i.e. from NRIs and foreign nationals and/or organisation, on the official websites of the fund in order to strengthen trust and confidence of the general public, who donated their hard-earned money to the fund, and also give directions to update the donations received and expenditure incurred from the said account…”.

Waghmare countered the Additional Solicitor General’s argument — that the PIL was fit to be dismissed since the SC had already settled the issue by dismissing two earlier petitions — saying the said petitions had sought disbanding of the fund as the Consolidated Fund of India was serving the same purpose.The earlier petitions had also termed the fund “unconstitutional” and demanded a probe into it, the petitioner has said, adding that his prayer was entirely different.

The bench accepted his argument and issued notices to the respondents.