The Supreme Court on Friday, November 4, 2022, upheld the Employees' Pension (Amendment) Scheme, 2014 as "legal and valid" while reading down certain provisions of the scheme concerning current members.
The judgment by a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit came in an appeal filed by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation challenging decisions of the Kerala, Rajasthan and Delhi High Courts quashing the 2014 amendments on "determination of pensionable salary" under the Employees Pension Scheme (EPS) of 1995.
The court held that the amendments to the pension scheme notified on August 22, 2014 would apply to the employees of “exempted establishments” in the list of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), which number over 1300 companies and entities, in the same manner as for the staff of regular establishments.
The legal dispute primarily concerned the controversial amendments made to paragraph 11 of the EPS-1995.
Before the amendments were introduced, every employee, who became a member of the Employees Provident Fund Scheme of 1952 as on November 16, 1995, could avail the EPS. In the pre-amended version of EPS-1995, the maximum pensionable salary cap was 6,500. However, members whose salaries exceeded this cap could opt, along with their employers, to contribute up to 8.33% of their actual salaries.
The 2014...
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