CENTRE FOR PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION v. UNION OF INDIA

CENTRE FOR PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION v. UNION OF INDIA

Writ Petition (Civil) No. 546 of 2020

Court: Supreme Court of India

Bench: Ashok Bhushan, R. Subhash Reddy and M.R. Shah, JJ.

Date of judgment: 18th August, 2020

Parties:

Petitioner: Centre for Public Interest Litigation

Respondent: Union of India

Introduction

The Centre filed this PIL in the wake of pandemic pointing out the absence of a National Plan specific to COVID-19 as mandated under DM Act 2005 and lack of minimum standard relief measures to curb the plight of poor, destitute and migrant workers affected by the pandemic and lockdown. It further mentions that the contribution by individuals and institutions being credited to PM CARES Fund instead of National Disaster Relief Fund (NDFR) is a violation of Section 46 of DM Act 2005.

Facts

The Disaster Management Act 2005 was enacted by Government of India on 23rd December 2005 to have in place institutional mechanisms that chalk out and monitor the implementation of disaster management plans and other measures by various wings of the Government to ensure coordinated, holistic and prompt prevention, management and mitigation of the effects of any disaster. Section 11 of the Act mandates a National Disaster Management Plan (NDMP) for the whole of India that contemplates all kinds of disaster and provide framework to cover disaster risk reduction, preparedness, active response, recovery and building back capacity and further ascribes essential responsibilities to several ministries to support and implement the plan.

The present writ petition is filed as public interest litigation during the COVID-19 pandemic by the petitioner with the following prayers:

1. That the Union of India needs to prepare, notify and implement a National Plan as per Section 11 read with Section 10 of DM Act, 2005 to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. That the Union of India as per Section 12 of Disaster Management Act, 2005 needs to mention detailed guidelines regarding minimum standards of relief to be given to individuals affected by COVID-19 pandemic and the nationwide lockdown following it.
3. That the Union of India pursuant to Section 46 of Disaster Management Act should use NDRF for extending assistance relating to COVID-19 pandemic and also that all the contributions from individuals and institutions shall be credited to National Disaster Relief Fund pursuant to Section 46(1)(b) instead of PM CARES Fund and further it may be directed that all the fund collected till date in PM CARES Fund to be transferred to NDRF.

Issues

The issues that arose in this writ petition for consideration were

1. Whether under Section 11 of Disaster Management Act, 2005 the Union of India, is obliged to prepare, notify and implement NDMP specifically for COVID-19 pandemic irrespective of a NDMP notified in November 2019?
2. Whether it is the obligation of Union of India as per Section 12 of Disaster Management Act, 2005 to lay down minimum standards of relief for COVID-19 pandemic irrespective of the earlier guidelines issued under Section 12 of Disaster Management Act, 2005?
3. Whether it is the obligation of the Union of India to use NDRF created under Section 46 of DM Act for the purpose of extending assistance in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic?
4. Whether all the contributions/grants from individuals and institutions should be directed to be credited to the NDRF as per the terms of Section 46(1) (b) of Disaster Management Act rather than to PM CARES Fund?
5. Whether all the funds collected under the PM CARES Fund till date should be directed to be transferred to National Disaster Relief Fund?

Judgment

1. In July 2008, the National Disaster Management Authority, Government of India issued National Disaster Management guidelines on the subject “Management of Biological Disasters”, which precisely notified that “Biological Disasters might be caused by epidemics, accidental release of virulent microorganism(s) or Bioterrorism (BT) with the use of biological agents such as anthrax, smallpox, etc.” The National Plan 2019 also contemplates Biological and Public Health Emergencies provided under table 1-1 of paragraph 1.13.1 which specifically comprised epidemics such as Parasitic, Fungal, Bacterial and Viral and prion infections further supplemented by several measures, guidelines and plans. The outbreak of Novel Coronavirus is an epidemic which turned into a pandemic. It is pertinent to note that the National Disaster Management Authority had well in advance released guidelines in 2008 and further elaborated on them in National Plan 2019. Pursuant to the case of Gaurav Kumar Bansal Vs. Union of India and Others (2017) 6 SCC 730, the National Plan pursuant to Section 11 of the Act was approved by National Disaster Management Authority and was also placed on the website of NDMA. Therefore, it was held that the Union of India is not obligated to prepare, notify and implement a fresh NDMP pursuant to Section 11 of the Act for COVID-19.
2. Section 12 of Disaster Management Act 2005 envisages uniform guidelines for minimum standards of relief in camps regarding food, drinking, shelter, sanitation, medicine, water etc. to be provided to people affected by ‘disaster’. The word disaster under Section 12 covers all disasters, the present disaster as well and doesn’t require different guidelines for minimum standards of relief for various different disasters. Thus, the guidelines for minimum standards covering all statutory aspects of Section 12 that existed prior to the declaration of COVID-19 pandemic are general in nature covering all categories of disasters and biological diseases thus, holds good for individuals affected by COVID-19. With the purpose of providing assistance under State Disaster Response Fund, assistance for ex-gratia payment to families of deceased persons, assistance for COVID-19 positive people necessitating hospitalization and for other assistance to be delivered from State Disaster Response Fund, COVID-19 pandemic was treated as a notified disaster, vide order dated 14/03/2020 by the Government of India.
3. The Central Government in exercise of its power under Section 46 of Disaster Management Act 2005 constituted a NDRF for the purpose of meeting any threatening disaster or disaster situation and the guidelines for administering the NDRF were revised with effect from the financial year 2015-16. Answering the third issue affirmatively it was held that the Union of India can utilise the National Disaster Response Fund in order to extend assistance in dealing and preventing the COVID-19 pandemic by releasing the funds as per the new guidelines on the request of States.
4. Section 46(1)(b) of DM Act 2005 states that, “any grants that may be made by any person or institution for the purpose of disaster management shall be credited to the National Disaster Response Fund”. The court was of the opinion that both the NDRF and PM CARE Fund are completely different funds established with different purposes and objectives. However, there are no prohibitions on any grants or contributions by any person or institution to be credited to NDRF and contributions are still open to NDRF as per Section 46 of the DM Act 2005 and the new guidelines that came into force from financial year 2015-16. In addition, any contribution to PM CARES Fund by any individual or institution is voluntary in nature and still open to contributions.
5. After the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, PM CARES Fund was founded as a public charitable trust dedicated to deal with any distress or emergency posed by COVID-19 pandemic. The court thus refused to issue any direction to transfer the funds of PM CARE Fund up till date to NDRF as the funds collected in PM CARES Fund are completely different funds of a public charitable trust.

Conclusion

In a nutshell the court refused the prayer ‘a’ and ‘b’ made in the writ petition and for prayer ‘c’ it was elaborated that there is no statutory restriction on the Union of India to use the funds of NDRF as per the guidelines to provide assistance in overcoming COVID-19 and that there are no restrictions on any individual or institution to make any contribution in NDRF pursuant to Section 46(1)(b) of the Act, 2005. However, the court denied the transfer of all funds collected in PM CARES Fund till date to National Disaster Response Fund.