New Delhi. The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the validity of the Employees’ Pension (Amendment) Scheme for the year 2014. However, the court set aside the limit of Rs 15,000 monthly salary for joining the pension fund.
The 2014 amendment had fixed the maximum pensionable salary (inclusive of basic pay and dearness allowance) at Rs 15,000 per month. Before the revision, the maximum pensionable salary was Rs 6,500 per month. Chief Justice U.U. A bench of Justices UU Lalit, Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia said that the employees who have not exercised the option of joining the pension scheme, should do so within six months. Will have to do
The bench said that the eligible employees who could not join the scheme till the last date should be given an additional chance as there was lack of clarity on the issue in the judgments passed by the High Courts of Kerala, Rajasthan and Delhi. The bench struck down the condition in the 2014 plan that employees would have to make an additional contribution of 1.16 per cent on wages above Rs 15,000.
However, the court said that this part of the judgment would be kept suspended for six months so that the authorities could collect the funds. The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization and the Center had challenged the decision of the High Courts of Kerala, Rajasthan and Delhi that quashed the 2014 scheme.(Language)