The Supreme Court on Tuesday referred the petitions challenging the 2018 verdict of the Kerala High Court to a three-judge bench for decision. The Kerala High Court in its order had quashed the Employees’ Pension (Amendment) Scheme 2014.
The High Court had termed the amendment in the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) as arbitrary. Under this amendment, inter alia, the limit of pensionable salary was raised to Rs 15,000 per month.
A bench of Justice UU Lalit and Justice Ajay Rastogi said the observations placed before it pertain to the application of the principle laid down by the two-judge bench of the apex court in 2016 and go to the bottom of the matter. In such a situation, the logical way would be to send these petitions along with the application of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) to a larger bench.
The top court directed the Registry to place these matters before Chief Justice NV Raman for obtaining necessary directions so that the petitions can be placed before a larger bench. The bench said in its order, “It would not be appropriate for us to consider the above arguments while sitting in a bench of two judges. The logical way would be to refer all these matters to a bench of at least three judges so that an appropriate decision can be reached.
The bench said, “The substantive question for consideration is whether there should be a ‘cut off date’ under paragraph 11(3) of the Employees’ Pension Scheme and whether the judgment (2016 judgment) in the RC Gupta case will be a standard basis, under which all cases should be settled.
This was the decision of Kerala High Court
The Kerala High Court had delivered the verdict in 2018 considering various petitions. In the petitions, some of the petitioners had argued that the amendments made in the EPS in 2014 raised the maximum pensionable salary limit to Rs 15,000 per month, which is against the basic spirit of the scheme. The apex court had initially dismissed the EPFO’s appeal against the high court’s decision in April 2019. Later, in January this year, the Supreme Court withdrew the High Court’s order dismissing the petition against the 2018 verdict.
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