New Delhi: Citing various provisions of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has told the Lok Sabha Secretariat that Parliament questions and matters related to the PM CARES Fund, the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) and the National Defence Fund (NDF) are not admissible, reported Indian Express.According to the newspaper, on January 30, the PMO told the Lok Sabha Secretariat that all matters and question pertaining to the three funds are not permissible under Rule 41(2) (viii) and 41(2)(xvii) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha.While Rule 41(2) (viii) states that “it shall not relate to a matter which is not primarily the concern of the Government of India”, Rule 41(2) (xvii) states “it shall not raise matters that are under the control of bodies or persons not primarily responsible to the Government of India”.The Indian Express report added that the reasoning given by the PMO for questions and matters related to the fund not being admissible was that the corpus of these funds is constituted fully with voluntary public contribution and not from any allocation out of the Consolidated Fund of India.The PMO and the Lok Sabha Secretariat didn’t respond to queries from the newspaper.So far, since it was created in March 2020, the Prime Minister’s Office has refused to disclose several details of PM Cares, including the identity of donors, amounts contributed, detailed utilisation and expenditure records, beneficiary lists, internal file notings and minutes of meetings and documents relating to tax exemptions and assessments.The refusals have been justified on the grounds that the fund is not a “public authority” under the RTI Act and disclosure would invade donor privacy and that tax-related records are protected by confidentiality under the Income Tax Act. Limited information has been placed – sometimes by the donors – in the public domain voluntarily, but not through RTI disclosures.On January 14, the Delhi high court orally observed that the PM CARES Fund, even if treated as a juristic or government-linked entity, does not lose its ‘right to privacy’ under the RTI Act, 2005.