The Supreme Court was told by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) on Tuesday that the structure of Employee Provident Fund Scheme (EPFS) and and Employee Pension Scheme (EPS) is entirely different.
The Senior Advocate Aryama Sundaram who appeared for EPFO made the submission before Justice UU Lalit, Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Sudhansu Dhulia.
The Bench was hearing the appeals filed by the Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO)in the issue related to payment of EPF pension to employees in proportion to their salary.
The appeals challenged the judgments of Kerala, Delhi and Rajasthan High Courts which had quashed the 2014 Amendment Scheme.
I’m year 2018 the Kerala High Court, had set aside Employee’s Pension (Amendment) Scheme, 2014 that capped maximum pensionable salary to Rs.15, 000 per month.
The reason cited by Kerala high court was that it is unrealistic and would deprive most of the employees of a decent pension in their old age.
A two judge bench of the Apex Court last year referred the appeals to a 3-judge bench to consider the following issues
1. If there would be a cut-off date under paragraph 11(3) of the Employees’ Pension Scheme and
2. If the decision in R.C. Gupta v. Regional Provident Fund Commissioner (2016) would be the governing principle on the basis of which all these matters must be disposed.