Dear Prime Minister,
We are a group of former civil servants of the All India and Central Services who have worked for decades with the Central and State Governments. As a group, we have no affiliation with any political party but are committed to the Constitution of India.
We have been keenly following the ongoing debate about the “Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations”, or “PM-CARES” – a fund created for the benefit of people affected by the COVID pandemic. Both the purpose for which it has been created as well as the way it has been administered have left a number of questions unanswered.
The speed with which the fund was set up was breath-taking. It was registered on 27 March 2020, within three days of the first nationwide lockdown. As per information available on the website of the fund, in less than a week, the fund had received ₹ 3076.62 crores. The actual amount received to date is yet to be disclosed.
The immediate cause of this letter is the refusal of the Government of India on 24 December 2020, to divulge details under the Right to Information (RTI) Act on the grounds that the PM Cares Fund is not a Public Authority under the ambit of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act, 2005. If it is not a public authority, how have the Prime Minister, Home Minister, Defence Minister and Finance Minister, as members of the government, lent their designations and official positions to it? Why are they Trustees in their official capacity and not as private citizens?
If PM-CARES is a private Trust, should donations to it be eligible as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure? Schedule VII (ix) under Section 135 of the Companies Act allows CSR exemptions for only certain types of funds established by Government including for socio-economic and relief work. On 28 March 2020, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs issued a circular stating “Item no. (viii) of Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013, which enumerates activities that may be undertaken by companies in discharge of their CSR obligations, inter alia provides that contribution to any fund set up by the Central Government for socio-economic development and relief qualifies as CSR expenditure. The PM-CARES Fund has been set up to provide relief to those affected by any kind of emergency or distress situation. Accordingly, it is clarified that any contribution made to the PM-CARES Fund shall qualify as CSR expenditure under the Companies Act 2013.” Clearly, contributions to the fund could not have been legitimate CSR expenditure had the fund not been “set up by the Central Government”.
The question that then arises is whether the circular of 28 March 2020 is legally deficient, more particularly when the Ministry of Corporate Affairs issues a gazette notification on 26 May, 2020 to include this fund in Schedule VII under Section 135 of the Companies Act as eligible to receive CSR funds with retrospective effect from 28 March 2020. The new entry of PM-CARES to the list at item (viii) in Schedule VII comes after the entry “Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF)”. Why was the new fund necessary when the nation already had a fund for national relief?
The Trust deed of the PM-CARES fund states in point 5.3 that “this trust is neither intended to be or is in fact owned, controlled or substantially financed by any government or any instrumentality of the government. There is no control of either the central government or any state governments, either direct or indirect, in the functioning of the trust in any manner whatsoever.” Then how is it that such large deposits have come from the public sector? If the Fund is not a public authority, why are our Embassies seeking funds from abroad? The MEA’s press release of 30 March, 2020 states that in a video conference you had with our Ambassadors on that day, you had explicitly “advised Heads of Mission to suitably publicize the newly-established PM-CARES Fund to mobilize donations from abroad.” Most certainly, the fact that you and other senior Ministers of Government handling sensitive portfolios are Trustees would ensure a substantial flow of funds. Also, contributions are being solicited by government officials from private citizens. The then Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, appealed to the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAI) to donate to the Fund and the ICAI complied. Can the Secretary seek donations from an organisation he has official dealings with?
Though the PM-CARES fund is not being accepted as a public authority, under the RTI Act, in 2019, the Supreme Court held that trusts, societies and non-government organisations, both private and public, which enjoy “substantial government financing”, should be treated as “public authorities” under the RTI Act. The substantial government funding in the case of PM-CARES is evident from the wages and other moneys received directly or indirectly from the Consolidated Fund. As per a Times of India report on 19 May, 2020, out of over Rs 10,600 crores in the fund, over ₹ 3200 crores was from public companies and nearly ₹ 1200 crores from public sector employees – apparently from out of salaries and wages of members of the defence forces, and other government and semi-government organisations.
There is a clear absence of transparency in every aspect of PM-CARES. Neither details of donors and amounts received nor details of expenditures incurred are in the public domain. This opacity is disturbing as the State governments handling the COVID-19 challenge were, and continue to be, sorely in need of financial assistance.
Public memory is short, Mr. Prime Minister. The young people of our country may not have even heard of A.R. Antulay, who in 1980, as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, created a number of funds, including one called the Indira Gandhi Pratibha Pratishthan. In that case, the fund was apparently a private fund but couched as if it were the Government’s. Ultimately, Antulay was charged by BJP functionaries in court and had to resign.
It is necessary that, for reasons of probity and adherence to standards of public accountability, the financial details of receipts and expenditures be made available in order to avoid doubts of wrongdoing. In the well-known 1975 Raj Narain case, Justice Mathew observed that “the people of this country have a right to know every public act, everything that is done in a public way by their public functionaries.” It is essential that the position and stature of the Prime Minister is kept intact by ensuring total transparency in all dealings the Prime Minister is associated with.
Satyamev Jayate
(100 signatories as below)
| 1. | Anita Agnihotri | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Social Justice Empowerment, GoI |
| 2. | S.P. Ambrose | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Secretary, Ministry of Shipping & Transport, GoI |
| 3. | Anand Arni | R&AW (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI |
| 4. | G. Balachandhran | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 5. | Vappala Balachandran | IPS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI |
| 6. | Gopalan Balagopal | IAS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 7. | Chandrashekhar Balakrishnan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Coal, GoI |
| 8. | Sharad Behar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh |
| 9. | Madhu Bhaduri | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Portugal |
| 10. | Meeran C Borwankar | IPS (Retd.) | Former DGP, Bureau of Police Research and Development, GoI |
| 11. | Ravi Budhiraja | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, GoI |
| 12. | Sundar Burra | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 13. | Rachel Chatterjee | IAS (Retd.) | Former Special Chief Secretary, Agriculture, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh |
| 14. | Kalyani Chaudhuri | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 15. | Gurjit Singh Cheema | IAS (Retd.) | Former Financial Commissioner (Revenue), Govt. of Punjab |
| 16. | Anna Dani | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 17. | Surjit K. Das | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Uttarakhand |
| 18. | Vibha Puri Das | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, GoI |
| 19. | P.R. Dasgupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Food Corporation of India, GoI |
| 20. | Pradeep K. Deb | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Deptt. Of Sports, GoI |
| 21. | Keshav Desiraju | IAS (Retd.) | Former Health Secretary, GoI |
| 22. | M.G. Devasahayam | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Govt. of Haryana |
| 23. | Sushil Dubey | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Sweden |
| 24. | A.S. Dulat | IPS (Retd.) | Former OSD on Kashmir, Prime Minister’s Office, GoI |
| 25. | K.P. Fabian | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Italy |
| 26. | Arif Ghauri | IRS (Retd.) | Former Governance Adviser, DFID, Govt. of the United Kingdom (on deputation) |
| 27. | Gourisankar Ghosh | IAS (Retd.) | Former Mission Director, National Drinking Water Mission, GoI |
| 28. | Suresh K. Goel | IFS (Retd.) | Former Director General, Indian Council of Cultural Relations, GoI |
| 29. | H.S. Gujral | IFoS (Retd.) | Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Govt. of Punjab |
| 30. | Meena Gupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, GoI |
| 31. | Ravi Vira Gupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India |
| 32. | Deepa Hari | IRS (Resigned) | |
| 33. | Vivek Harinarain | IAS (Retd.) | Govt. of Tamil Nadu |
| 34. | Sajjad Hassan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Commissioner (Planning), Govt. of Manipur |
| 35. | Kamal Jaswal | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI |
| 36. | Vinod C. Khanna | IFS (Retd.) | Former Additional Secretary, MEA, GoI |
| 37. | Ajai Kumar | IFoS(Retd.) | Former Director, Ministry of Agriculture, GoI |
| 38. | Brijesh Kumar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI |
| 39. | Ish Kumar | IPS (Retd.) | Former DGP (Vigilance & Enforcement), Govt. of Telangana and former Special Rapporteur, National Human Rights Commission |
| 40. | Sudhir Kumar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Central Administrative Tribunal |
| 41. | P.K. Lahiri | IAS (Retd.) | Former ED, Asian Development Bank & Former Revenue Secretary, GoI |
| 42. | Subodh Lal | IPoS (Resigned) | Former Deputy Director General, Ministry of Communications, GoI |
| 43. | B.B. Mahajan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Deptt. of Food, GoI |
| 44. | Harsh Mander | IAS (Retd.) | Govt. of Madhya Pradesh |
| 45. | Amitabh Mathur | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director, Aviation Research Centre and Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI |
| 46. | Lalit Mathur | IAS (Retd.) | Former Director General, National Institute of Rural Development, GoI |
| 47. | Aditi Mehta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan |
| 48. | Sonalini Mirchandani | IFS (Resigned) | GoI |
| 49. | Noor Mohammad | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority, Govt. of India |
| 50. | Avinash Mohananey | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Sikkim |
| 51. | Deb Mukharji | IFS (Retd.) | Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh and former Ambassador to Nepal |
| 52. | Shiv Shankar Mukherjee | IFS (Retd.) | Former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom |
| 53. | Pranab S. Mukhopadhyay | IAS (Retd.) | Former Director, Institute of Port Management, GoI |
| 54. | Sobha Nambisan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Secretary (Planning), Govt. of Karnataka |
| 55. | P.G.J. Nampoothiri | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Gujarat |
| 56. | Surendra Nath | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Finance Commission, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh |
| 57. | P. Joy Oommen | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Chhattisgarh |
| 58. | Amitabha Pande | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI |
| 59. | Mira Pande | IAS (Retd.) | Former State Election Commissioner, West Bengal |
| 60. | Alok Perti | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Coal, GoI |
| 61. | R. Poornalingam | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, GoI |
| 62. | Rajesh Prasad | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to the Netherlands |
| 63. | R.M. Premkumar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 64. | T.R. Raghunandan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, GoI |
| 65. | N.K. Raghupathy | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Staff Selection Commission, GoI |
| 66. | V.P. Raja | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission |
| 67. | C. Babu Rajeev | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, GoI |
| 68. | K. Sujatha Rao | IAS (Retd.) | Former Health Secretary, GoI |
| 69. | M.Y. Rao | IAS (Retd.) | |
| 70. | Satwant Reddy | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Chemicals and Petrochemicals, GoI |
| 71. | Vijaya Latha Reddy | IFS (Retd.) | Former Deputy National Security Adviser, GoI
|
| 72. | Julio Ribeiro | IPS (Retd.) | Former Adviser to Governor of Punjab & former Ambassador to Romania |
| 73. | Aruna Roy | IAS (Resigned) | |
| 74. | Manabendra N. Roy | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 75. | A.K. Samanta | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General of Police (Intelligence), Govt. of West Bengal |
| 76. | Deepak Sanan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Adviser (AR) to Chief Minister, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh |
| 77. | G. Sankaran | IC&CES (Retd.) | Former President, Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal |
| 78. | S. Satyabhama | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairperson, National Seeds Corporation, GoI |
| 79. | N.C. Saxena | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Planning Commission, GoI |
| 80. | A. Selvaraj | IRS (Retd.) | Former Chief Commissioner, Income Tax, Chennai, GoI |
| 81. | Ardhendu Sen | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 82. | Abhijit Sengupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI |
| 83. | Aftab Seth | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Japan |
| 84. | Ashok Kumar Sharma | IFoS (Retd.) | Former MD, State Forest Development Corporation, Govt. of Gujarat |
| 85. | Ashok Kumar Sharma | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Finland and Estonia |
| 86. | Navrekha Sharma | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Indonesia |
| 87. | Pravesh Sharma | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh |
| 88. | Raju Sharma | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh |
| 89. | Rashmi Shukla Sharma | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh |
| 90. | Ramesh Inder Singh | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Punjab and former Chief Information Commissioner, Punjab |
| 91. | Sujatha Singh | IFS (Retd.) | Former Foreign Secretary, GoI |
| 92. | Tirlochan Singh | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, National Commission for Minorities, GoI |
| 93. | Jawhar Sircar
|
IAS (Retd.)
|
Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI, & former CEO, Prasar Bharati |
| 94. | Parveen Talha | IRS (Retd.) | Former Member, Union Public Service Commission |
| 95. | P.S.S. Thomas | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission |
| 96. | Geetha Thoopal | IRAS (Retd.) | Former General Manager, Metro Railway, Kolkata |
| 97. | Hindal Tyabji | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary rank, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir |
| 98. | Jawed Usmani | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh & former Chief Information Commissioner, Uttar Pradesh |
| 99. | Ashok Vajpeyi | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Lalit Kala Akademi |
| 100. | Ramani Venkatesan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Director General, YASHADA, Govt. of Maharashtra |
